All Good Things
by Tandirra
Summary: NO SLASH. The team has fully accepted Loki by now. But when he suddenly draws away they must figure out why and decide what to do with their crumbling trust. Fourth in a series but is written with minimum references, so it is not necessary to read the others. Some swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own any Marvel characters or places**

**This is the 4th in a continuing series, but is written so that you don't have to read the others. There are minor references to the others, but not enough to confuse anyone.**

* * *

Snow drifted past Loki's windows. Loki glanced up from his book, watching it float by. He smirked, knowing the complaints he would soon be hearing from Thor. A moment later he returned to his readings then his door slid open. Loki jumped, quickly setting the book down to glare at the intruder.

"What ever happened to knocking?"

Tony held up his hands defensively.

"It's my house!"

"And my room."

"Alright, point taken, I'll knock next time. Anyway, we wanted to know if you wanted to come with us, we're going to grab lunch at a deli."

Loki stood, giving a dramatic sigh which caused Tony to roll his eyes.

"I suppose I can join you, although it takes time out of my busy schedule. _"We_" is the others, yes?"

"Yeah, and don't try to play that guilt game with me, whatever you were looking at couldn't be _that_ interesting."

Tony peered at the book on Loki's bed as he spoke. He stared at it for a few seconds before looking back at Loki disbelievingly.

"Fairy tales, you were reading fairy tales."

Loki instantly became defensive, snapping his fingers at the book, returning it to his shelves.

"The Grimm brothers were interesting people! I met them before they wrote those, so I was curious."

Tony's snickering only irked Loki more, he huffed agitatedly. Eventually Tony stopped snickering, although he still grinned openly.

"Whatever, just change into something normal and meet me down in the main room when you're done."

**00000**

"Whose idea was it to walk there?"

The team walked in a close group to preserve warmth. Tony's complain caused Natasha to smirk back at him.

"Yours, you didn't listen to Jarvis or us about the weather and, what was it you said? Oh, _"it's only a few blocks away we'll be fine"_, I think that was it, right Steve?"

Everyone but Tony grinned. They soon reached the restaurant and were ushered to a large booth. The deli was empty, save for the staff and them, the impending blizzard kept most off the streets. Loki took a window seat, Thor and Tony sliding in beside him. Clint sat opposite him, with Natasha and Bruce, while Steve pulled a chair over.

"You all having a good day? I'll be serving you today, what can I start you-oh!"

The short haired waitress, with bright colored hair, that had hurried over let out a small squeak as she recognized the team. She stared at them, her mouth open for a moment, then blushed and continued.

"Er…What can I start you all off with, drinks wise?"

The team listed off what they wanted, she jotted it down and hurried away.

"That never ceases to gratify me."

Loki murmured, smirking.

"Don't let that go to your head, she definitely recognized me first."

"Tony, I'm pretty sure she saw Thor first, he's a bit hard to miss, even when wearing normal clothes."

Clint retorted, Tony grimaced as everyone tittered.

"If you don't stop sassing me I won't pay for lunch."

"That would be unfortunate seeing as you are the only one with a job outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. or protecting the world. Of course, by job I mean having Pepper manage your company for you."

"Shut up, fairy tale boy."

Loki tinged pink, glaring at Tony, but went silent. Their drinks were soon passed out and the same waitress, who now seemed to have trouble looking at them directly, took their order for food and left.

"Brother, we should visit Asgard sometime soon."

Thor mused, glancing over to Loki, who set his tea down.

"We've had trips away that have lasted a year or more in the past, are you really getting homesick now? Last time you went wasn't terribly long ago, it was when I was…sick."

Loki finished quietly, quickly taking another sip of tea.

"I know, but that was nearly a year ago and it was only for a few days. Also, it would be nice for all of us to see Asgard."

Everyone listened attentively. They were all interested in Asgard and, besides the gods, only Tony had been there. Loki swirled a spoon around within his tea, not looking up.

"Mmm…it takes energy to cross through the passages. Taking all of you…would be difficult. Anyway, what if something were to happen while we were gone?"

Loki's tone discouraged the others and Thor dropped the topic for the time being. They talked about other things, waiting for their food. Soon the waitress returned and began to pass out their meals.

"So, umm…I hope you don't mind but could I-aah!"

The glass windows shattered, and she shrieked. Loki instinctively summoned a shield of energy to protect them. Through the increasingly heavy snow a figure could be seen watching them. Loki leapt through the window, ignoring the broken glass.

"Ma'am, get to the back, hide, we'll take care of this."

Steve jumped up, motioning for the woman to run. She stumbled back, fleeing into the kitchens.

"Bruce are you alright?"

He turned quickly to his friend, who was taking calming breaths.

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

Steve nodded then addressed the remaining, Thor had already jumped through the window after Loki.

"Natasha, Clint, you both brought guns, good. Tony I suggest you stay back unless you can get your suit down here, this was definitely targeting us and we don't know what they can do."

Tony shoved a hand into his pocket as the other's exited the deli, Bruce lingered for a moment. Tony extracted an earpiece and looked up at him as he clipped it on.

"What, are you staying out of this one?"

"Oh, no I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to do something dangerous."

Tony grinned as he adjusted the earpiece.

"Me, _no_, never. Go on big guy, I'll be with you in a second."

Bruce nodded and quickly went after the others. Tony tapped the earpiece impatiently, then Jarvis spoke in his ear.

"Yes sir?"

"I need the new suit, now."

"Sir, it has not been fully tested yet."

"I know that, it'll be fine, just deploy it."

"Yes sir."

**00000**

Loki squinted at the unmoving figure through the snow. The scarf he wore blew into his face. Loki cursed and snapped his fingers, armor replacing the casual clothes.

"Who are you, what do you want from us?"

He called out to the figure, it did not move. From somewhere behind him, Loki heard a crack of thunder and the distinctive sound of Mjolnir. Loki glanced back and, as he had thought, Thor had summoned Mjolnir and now wore his armor. When Loki glanced ahead again, the figure had gone.

"Wha-"

Then the figure, a man's whose face remained strangely shadowed, appeared in front of Loki. The man held something up, which produced a sickly sweet gas. Loki stumbled back, chocking. The man watched him for a few moments, then a gunshot sounded and he disappeared.

"Damn, I missed."

Natasha cursed as she, Clint, Steve, and Bruce, who hadn't even had time to transform, hurried over to Thor and Loki.

"Brother, are you alright?"

Thor frowned as Loki made a disgusted face, still tasting the unnaturally sweet odor.

"The man attacked me with some form of gas. I feel fine, it simply tastes foul."

There was a noise from above, everyone looked up. Tony slowly descended towards them, heat from his propulsion melting the snow around him.

"What happened?"

He looked around at the team, Steve was the first to answer.

"The guy bolted when Natasha shot at him. Although not before spraying Loki with some sort of gas."

Loki waved his hand dismissively.

"I'm fine, even if the gas was supposed to do something my magic would heal me and cure it."

"Still, we should probably run some tests and make sure nothing's wrong."

Tony suggested, Loki sighed with exasperation.

"If that will reassure you, fine. But first I suggest that we at least compensate the restaurant for the trouble."

Back inside the deli Loki inspected the broken windows, repairing them with a short incantation, while Steve reassured the employees that everything was fine. Loki turned and was met by their previous waitress.

"Oh, hello, did Tony pay the bill yet?"

She blushed deeply.

"Er…yes…I said he didn't have to but he did. But, um…I just wanted to thank you for saving my life."

Loki smiled reassuringly.

"Then I have repaid part of my debt, after all, the times I may have endangered you are probably far greater in number."

The girl blushed even deeper as Loki bowed. He gave her a final smile and went to stand by the others. As they left Tony smirked at him.

"I think you enjoyed that a bit too much. She looked like she was about to faint."

"Nay, I was merely speaking to her."

Loki's amused grin caused Tony to roll his eyes in disbelief.

"_Right_, whatever you say."

**00000**

"I told you, there's absolutely nothing wrong with me."

Loki muttered as Tony removed the sensors from his arm.

"Okay, you were right, but it's still better to be safe than sorry. Come on, let's go join the others."

The blizzard had fully blown in now. Heavy snow howled past the windows, Clint was flipping channels with Thor and Steve, while Natasha thumbed through a book. Bruce scrolled through his laptop, occasionally typing. Tony went to make himself a drink and Loki flung himself onto a couch.

"Clint, what _are_ you watching?"

"A movie."

"Very helpful, thank you."

Clint glanced over to see Loki's crooked grin and sighed. Tony came to sit beside him. The day passed on into evening. At one point Thor glanced over to Loki and frowned.

"Brother, are you sure you feel fine?"

Loki opened his eyes to look at Thor.

"What do you mean? Of course I feel fine."

Everyone listened to the conversation that had broken the monotony. Tony frowned as well.

"You do look paler than usual."

Loki scowled at his tone and stood up from the comfortable position he had been in. He glared at them.

"You're being ridiculous and I'm really not in the mood to be nagged. Goodnight."

Everyone watched as Loki stormed out of the room. Tony sighed and massaged his forehead.

"He acts like I five year old, I swear. Still…Jarvis keep an eye on him, just in case."

"Yes sir."

Loki lay on his bed, muttering darkly to himself whilst flipping the pages of his book. The sickening taste still lingered in the back of his throat. He turned the page he was on with too much force and it tore. Loki stared at it for a moment then sighed heavily and set it aside. There was no use reading tonight, sleep would be better to shake the strange feeling he had.

**00000**

The first thing Loki felt when he awoke was the overpowering sweet taste in his mouth. Loki lurched forward as the darkened room swam around him. His breath burned within his throat and his limbs felt frozen. The movement caused an outcry from his body. Loki attempted to stand but fell to the floor as his legs gave out.

"Jarvis!"

"The AI can't hear you."

It took a moment for these words to process. Then Loki whipped his head towards the direction of the voice, stifling a groan as more pain wracked his body. In the darkness a figure could be seen. The voice was male but, other than that, nothing could be distinguished in the dark. Loki sat up, which caused another wave of increased pain and a fit of coughing.

"I must say, it's incredibly gratifying to see my magnum opus working so flawlessly. Years of work, and even more work once you came around, the results are in front of me."

The man seemed genuinely pleased, his voice a mix of pride and delight. Loki attempted to stifle his coughing and speak.

"The deli…you attacked…a-ah…us."

"Well yes, I had to administer it somehow."

The burning in his chest was nearly overwhelming, Loki clenched his teeth to keep from crying out but only succeeded in biting his tongue. Blood joined the sweetness.

"What did you…do to…me."

"Administered a poison specifically made for magic users, of course I had to up the dosage for you. It will kill you within the hour, unless I give you this…"

The man held something close to Loki's face. Loki attempted to lash out and grab it, both physically and with magic, but simply fell forward from his upright position, barely catching himself. His mind processed the man's words.

"Aah…what do I do…to get it?"

The man chuckled.

"I have a few propositions. Of course, this is merely an inhibitor, not a cure. I would have to give it to you every night in order to prevent death. And if you try to set a trap for me with the others, then I won't come and you will die."

"Then I would…prefer death. I-"

Another coughing spell cut off Loki's words. Blood dripped from his mouth, Loki hoped it was simply from his tongue.

"That's no fun. If you die everyone will cry, Stark will cry, and Thor will cry buckets and buckets. Well, maybe not…but if you do die, then I will have to turn my direct attention towards the Avengers. You see how effectively I was able to get you, I think you can guess how that would go."

Loki's heart beat unsteadily, his thoughts were slow.

"Then what…do you want from…me, information?"

The man chuckled again.

"No, _trickster_, I want mayhem."

* * *

**AN: Here it is, the first chapter. While writing the last one I started craving angst and pain(I know that sounds horrible) and came up with the idea for this fic. Also, _shhh_ you didn't see me quote Moriarty, that never happened, _shhh_. But really, how do you like it? I have lots of ideas to come, one possibly involving Sif getting into the mix, and am writing the second chapter now. I would love feedback, it really helps. The next chapter should be up in a few days.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Has Loki woken up yet?"

Tony entered the room, making a beeline for the kitchen. Bruce looked up from the couch, where everyone was watching the news.

"No, no yet."

Tony sighed wearily as he made coffee, leaning back on the counter and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"_Course,_ Jarvis you kept an eye on him, right?"

"Yes sir, nothing was out of the ordinary."

Jarvis's words reassured Tony but over an hour later, he began to become impatient. He stood up and walked towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

"To check on your idiot brother."

Tony reached Loki's room and was about to open the door, then he stopped and knocked. There was a few long moments of pause, then the door slid open. As Tony entered he saw Loki staring out at the, near white-out, blizzard. Loki turned to look at him with a questioning expression.

"Yes?"

"Oh, you haven't come down to eat yet and it's, like, eleven thirty. I just wanted to make sure you weren't sick from that stuff yesterday."

Loki nodded and gave a small smile.

"I hadn't realized how late it was. Yes, I will come down in a moment but I'm surprised you didn't simply ask Jarvis."

Tony shrugged.

"Yeah but he might have mal-"

"Malfunctioned, how probable is that?"

Loki's interruption surprised Tony. The god watched him intently.

"Umm…I wasn't really suggesting that…he won't really just malfunction, someone would have to tamper with him or something. Why?"

Tony frowned uncertainly at Loki, who gave a brisk nod.

"Our safety is important, obviously someone is directly interested in us. Yesterday made that apparent. Now, let's go to the others."

With that, Loki swept from his room, Tony frowning in his wake. They entered the room, Loki heading directly for the couch without getting food. The news was still on, although most everyone was doing other things. A reporter stood, wrapped in layers, their face was red and heavy snow blew around them.

"…the largest storm in years and nearly record-breaking temperatures. Everyone has been directed to stay inside and wait for it to blow over."

"Well, that's just great. Loki, if we need food you're the one to get it."

Tony grumbled, turning down the volume. Loki glared at him in protest.

"Me? Why would I have to do it?"

"Because you're the only one who won't freeze his ass off out there. Anyway, even though the stores are closed, you can just teleport in, take what we need, leave money, and come back."

Loki rolled his eyes, mumbling something under his breath in response to Tony's grin.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Nothing, just once I go do that, if you find a block of ice in your bed, it's not my fault."

"Wha-"

"Boys, enough."

Natasha interrupted them, holding out her hand.

"Obviously you two have a lot of energy and nothing better to do. We might as well spar or train, something other than listen to you two bickering."

After a moment of consideration, Tony shrugged and everyone else mumbled their agreement. About half an hour later, everyone had convened on the training floor. Bruce sat off on the side, to observe.

"Brother, would you like to spar with me?"

Thor turned to Loki, whose eyes immediately went towards Mjolnir.

"Alright, but…no lightning."

Thor grinned enthusiastically and nodded.

"Deal."

They moved to opposite ends of the sparring area. Everyone else stopped what they were doing, watching the two gods spar was always impressive, even when their blows were softened. The room grew quiet as the brothers eyed each other. Tension rose as the silence lengthened, then the stillness broke as Thor leapt towards Loki.

Thor swung Mjolnir with enough speed to catch any human but Loki ducked and rolled away. He came to a halt near where the others were standing and sprung up, a dagger glinted in his hand.

"Well that's…incredibly disconcerting. Where does he hide those things?"

Tony muttered as he noticed the weapon. For Thor's sake, he hoped that it was dull, Tony had seen, on multiple occasions, just how proficient Loki was with his preferred weapon.

Thor came at Loki again. This time, Loki didn't dodge until the last second, weaving his way under Thor's arm. He brought his dagger up to strike but was met with Mjolnir's handle as Thor deflected it. Loki hissed and jumped back, then twisted and disappeared. Thor tensed, eyeing the room suspiciously.

Suddenly six copies of Loki appeared around him, all identical. They moved on unison, converging on Thor with dagger in hand. Thor made a guess and jumped towards a Loki, raising his arm to elbow him. His arm passed through the Loki as it flickered from existence. The remaining copies let out an amused laugh, Thor grinned.

"Five against one is hardly fair, brother."

"Who said anything about fair?"

Loki's voice was strangely amplified as it was spoken with five voices. They began to converge on Thor again. This time, Thor threw Mjolnir at one of the Lokis, who dodged out of its way. But on Mjolnir's return, the Loki stumbled and was struck in the side, revealing him to be the real one as the others disappeared and he fell to the ground. Thor's triumphant grin soon changed to worry as Loki didn't get up. He rushed over to Loki and kneeled down.

"Brother, are you-"

Loki turned, quickly bringing his dagger to hover less than an inch from Thor's throat. It was Loki's turn to grin.

"Really, you fell for that? I wasn't actually expecting you to."

"I realize that I should have expected trickery."

Thor held his hand out and helped Loki to his feet. As he did, Loki winced, gingerly prodding his ribs.

"Did I hurt you?"

"It was only a glancing blow but it was still Mjolnir. I think it's only a fractured rib, so no, I'm fine."

Loki placed a hand on his side, closing his eyes and silently mouthing words. There was a small glow from beneath his fingers, then the glow sparked, growing blinding. With a surprised gasp Loki snatched his hand away, looking sick.

"What was that?"

The others walked over to join Thor and Loki. Tony frowned at Loki, who stared at his hand for a few moments, then seemed to realize what he was doing and looked at them.

"Oh, nothing. Perhaps I had more than one injury, the spell used more energy than I had expected, that is all."

Loki grinned casually.

**00000**

High winds and heavy snow continued to pelt the tower.

"I hate snow."

Tony grumbled, looking up from his current project.

"Yes, it's quite an inconvenience."

Loki replied, not taking his eyes from the glass screen in front of him. Tony watched him for a few seconds, before rolling his chair to get a better look at the screens.

"When did you learn how to use these?"

"It took me a while to figure them out, the technology, even yours, is so outdated when compared to Asgard's. I had to adjust but I got it quickly."

Tony nodded, deciding whether to take that as an insult or not.

"Okay…but what are you looking at?"

The screens displayed a myriad of images and data. Tony reached out, expanding one of the charts. Loki watched him from the corner of his eye.

"Aren't these the blood work and tests we ran yesterday? Why are you looking at these?"

"I have nothing better to do and, anyway, comparing my results to those of Midgardians is interesting. I wonder how much my magic affects my internal make-up?"

Tony looked at him for a few more moments, before returning to his work. Time passed with little interruption until a shattering sound made Tony spin around. The glass display lay in pieces on the floor, Loki stood, staring at it, with his hand bloodied.

"What the hell did you do?"

Loki waved his uninjured hand, the glass returned to its screen, before turning to face Tony.

"I must have used to much force. I apologize, I should leave before I break anything else."

Before Tony could reply, Loki swept out of the workshop.

"Jarvis, what was he looking at when he broke it?"

"Security tapes from last night, sir."

Tony frowned with concern.

"Why would he be looking at…what are you not telling me, Loki?"

**00000**

The door slid shut behind Loki, who took a shuddering breath. He scowled at his tingling limbs and the revolting sweet taste within his mouth. Loki glanced down at his cut hand.

"Damn spasms, made me get hit by Mjolnir, now this."

He couldn't even heal himself, for fear of his magic attempting to heal the poison, Loki grimaced in frustration. He would have to wait for his natural healing to finish the job. Loki flicked his finger back to the door, magically sealing it. That was another thing, the only magic that caused pain was any magic directly affecting his body. Loki inhaled sharply as an idea sprang to his mind.

"Magic affecting my body…"

He looked back at his hand, attempting to ignore his increasingly stiff limbs and painful breaths. Loki grimaced, then placed one hand on top of the other. Cold radiated from his palm until it ceased to feel cold. Loki's upper lip curled as his flesh slowly dyed blue, ridges appearing as the color spread.

Despite Loki's revulsion, one thing was obvious, there was a dramatic drop in the pain he felt. Loki could still feel the poison pulsing within him but it was no longer crippling. _This_ was his refuge, Loki laughed bitterly at the situation. Then the lights cut out, Loki whipped around. The sudden movement caused him to stumble.

"You're still standing, impressive, I really did pick the right person to devote my life's work to."

The man's voice spoke from the shadows. Loki came to a halt, then smiled grimly, straightening.

"A little more than standing."

Loki flicked his wrist, a blazing orb bleached the room with white light. His moment of satisfaction was shortened by the wave of nausea that overtook Loki a moment later.

"I must say, that's _very_ interesting. Can Thor look like that as well?"

The voice's source could now be seen, Loki was shocked by how_ ordinary_ the man looked. He wore a suit that would not be out of place in a wealthy position, his short-cropped, graying, brown hair, and wide set brown eyes were perfectly mundane. The man who stood before Loki was someone who would blend into a crowd, someone completely unnoticeable unless you were looking for him.

"I suppose, now that you've seen me, I should introduce myself. The name's Allan."

"I thought you would be…"

Loki stared at him in disbelief.

"You thought I would be more impressive? Well, if it's any consolation, what I lack in physical prowess, I make up for in intelligence and magical ability."

The man, Allan, spoke casually, as if this was completely normal. Loki couldn't help but have a grudging respect for his unflappability.

"Now that we have more time to…chat, how did you make this poison?"

"I'll answer questions after you do what I asked you to."

Loki narrowed his eyes, irked that this Midgardian was, in no way, detectably intimidated by him.

"You can see, I don't need to do as you asked. I _should_ be going into convulsions about now, but I'm not."

The patronizing smile that Loki received was even more irritating. How dare this mortal patronize _him_.

"That appearance certainly slows down my darling but, even if you spend of the rest of your life like that, you will still be compromised."

"I could kill you now, we may both die but then, no one else would."

The mortal, Loki decided not give him the respect of using his name, chuckled, never taking his eyes off Loki.

"You're right. Only three problems with that plan. I suspect that my darling has made you too weak to kill me with magic, even in that form. Also, you're not selfless enough and you're certainly to prideful."

"How would you know what I am willing to do?"

Loki cocked his head, the mortal shrugged.

"People who are selfless don't survive as long as those of us who are selfish. And a person like you, the things you've done, you _are_ selfish. Any attempt to deny it would be a lie to yourself. You don't want to be killed by a mortal, like this, alone. Your pride couldn't take it."

The man took a syringe from his suit pocket, holding it up for Loki to see, and continued speaking.

"The world is a cruel place, people are cruel, does it not deserve mayhem? I believe it does and you are the perfect person to cause it. Come now, start small, readjust yourself."

Loki stared at him in silence, he could feel his body weakening. The man frowned with mock disappointment.

"You did very well in not telling the others, but if you wish for you and them to continue living, change back and allow me to administer the inhibitor. I have time to be patient, you do not."

After a moment Loki scowled, he watched as his skin lost its blue hue. His pain spiked as it did and Loki clenched his teeth.

"Good, I realize you have deluded yourself into believing that this is who you are. But, you should do what you do best."

Loki glared at him as he moved closer. Ignoring his nausea and burning lungs, Loki hissed in his ear.

"You will regret this mistake."

"Almost all decisions we make, we regret. If I do regret this, then it's nothing new."

* * *

**AN: Here you go, chapter 2. Sorry that it took longer than I had hoped, I got distracted by things(one of those being Captain America 2) and got writers block near the end. Hopefully I'm not totally off on how blizzards work, I have no personal experience with them because of where I live, that's not too obvious is it? I took the feedback I got into consideration when writing this, so hopefully this works. Leave comments if you want, how do you like things so far? The next chapter should probably be out within a few days.**


	3. Chapter 3

"We believe this storm should only last two to three days more, at most. There are already-"

"_Uugh_…I just want this stupid storm to be _over_."

Tony groaned over the forecaster, sprawling out on the couch. Loki, who sat beside Tony, glanced at him and rolled his eyes.

"It's only been four days, it's really not_ that_ bad. And get your feet off me."

"Or what, you'll-"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has requested that Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff report immediately."

Jarvis made Tony jump, Natasha and Clint looked over to each other before Natasha addressed Jarvis in response.

"Alright, thanks Jarvis. Tell them we'll be there soon."

They stood and went to wait for the elevator.

"Aren't you guys going to wait for us?"

Tony jumped up agitatedly. Natasha gave him an impatient look.

"Fury requested us, not the rest of you."

"When has what Fury said ever deterred me? This is the first interesting thing in days, whatever it is, there's no way I'm staying here."

Clint and Natasha looked at each other, then sighed.

**00000**

Everyone, Tony had roped the rest of the team into coming as well, stood in an elevator as it descended.

"Good thing S.H.I.E.L.D. has a complex here, if we had to travel farther in this storm, I wouldn't have come."

"Maybe I should tell Fury that, so you can't tag along next time."

Natasha smirked at Tony, who gave her a mock grimace. Soon the elevator stopped and they stepped out into a long hallway. An agent guarding the floor eyed the team but Natasha gave him a brisk nod and he let them pass.

"Fifth door to the left, the Director is waiting for you."

They walked past a steady steam of agents, with varying looks of distress on their faces. As they waited for Natasha and Clint to be cleared into the room, Tony leaned over to Loki, muttering in his ear.

"Wonder what happened? They all looked pretty stressed."

Loki shrugged.

"I don't know, must not be something too dangerous though, we would have been told by now."

The door opened, Natasha and Clint passed through without problem. But when the others stepped through the doorway, the first being Bruce, an alarm voice spoke.

"Dr. Banner does not have the clearance level to enter this room."

"Allow the next five people entrance, override by Nicholas Fury."

Fury called from where he was standing, looking over at them. There was a beep and everyone entered. The room was recognizable as an interrogation viewing room, with one-way glass showing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent talking to another agent, who seemed to be in disarray.

"Director, what happened?"

Natasha inclined her head towards the interrogation. Fury eyed the rest of the team, lingering on Loki the longest.

"We're still figuring out what happened. Yesterday morning a ship of ours, carrying important information, stopped sending us signals. We immediately started searching for it but found nothing. Then, last night, we got a call from some authorities in Maine. The ship's crew, all of them, were found in a small port town, without the ship."

Fury paused, massaging his temple. The team thought on what he has said, waiting for him to continue.

"Then, when we tried to ask what had happened, we learned that most of the crew wasn't all there. Whatever happened messed with their heads, even the ones that are coherent, well…"

He trailed off, pressing a sequence of commands into a panel on the wall, allowing them to hear the interrogation.

"Try to focus, what happened to the ship?"

"I don't…it went all dark…but I saw someone before…h-he had long hair, red like fire! He was tall, he…"

The agent trailed off, eyes wandering. Fury disconnected the audio again, turning back to the team.

"That's about as coherent as they get. If this confusion doesn't wear off, well, then we'll lose a good hundred agents to someone we know nothing about."

Silence settled over them, everyone thought on the problem. Natasha spoke first, looking back to Fury.

"So, why did you call us in, what do you want us to do?"

"We are already sweeping all cameras, phones, anything and everything that could have information. But, whoever did this, I think they're smart enough to keep a low profile, even while hiding a ship. I only called you in to inform you and ask you to keep your eyes open. But now that the rest you are here, Thor…Loki, could this be magic we're dealing with?"

Thor turned to his brother, who looked thoughtful.

"It is not out of the realm of possibility. How much skill would such a task require, brother?"

Everyone looked to Loki. After a long moment, he sighed and brought his head up to face them.

"With enough knowledge and power, this is not only possible but laughably easy. Perhaps I would be able to learn more if I could speak with that agent myself."

Loki spoke slowly, turning towards Fury.

"Easy to do…alright, I'll let you speak with that one but not alone."

"I would rather…fine, but whoever comes with me, do not speak."

Fury scowled distrustfully before giving a grudging nod.

"Natasha, go with him."

She nodded and the two of them left the room. A few moments later, they entered the interrogation room, Natasha shooing the interviewing agent away. Fury reconnected the audio as Loki sat opposite the frazzled agent.

"Can you focus on me?"

Loki's voice was soft, the man's eyes wandered over to him before wandering away. Loki pursed his lips then held his hand out and snapped his fingers. A small flame appeared in his hand, the agent focused on it.

"There, now tell me about the red haired man."

The flame danced between Loki's fingers.

"Fire, like his hair…I remember h-he got close to me…had pale skin, cold…oh, oh! He spoke…can't remember what…but his voice…s-smooth, very deep…but he…"

The agent frowned, trying to remember. Loki prompted him.

"You are doing very well, what did he do?"

"Strange…strange…he grabbed me…grabbed me…then it went dark, when I could see again…the shore with everyone else."

Loki nodded, allowing the flame to flicker out. He stood and turned to Natasha.

"Do you think that is enough?"

Natasha glanced at the agent, who had closed his eyes with a frown, and nodded. She unlocked the door and a moment later, the two of them rejoined the others. Loki looked to Fury.

"Was that helpful? It is doubtful he knows what happened to the ship, so learning more about the assailant was worth a try."

"It's more than we knew before. I'll think about it and inform you all if we find out more. Now, everyone but the people I called here in the first place, go."

Clint and Natasha waited behind as the others left the room. Fury entered something else into the panel, an image showed the hallway and elevator door. He waited until the others entered the elevator to speak..

"I don't like this, keep an eye on Loki, what he said about it being easy and then being so quick to volunteer."

"He could actually be trying to help."

Clint offered, Fury gave him a dark look.

"You, of all people, shouldn't trust him. We need to test and see if any of the recovered agents have any traces of magic of them. Then we can compare it to any records we have of Loki's magic. But I need you two to watch him, report anything strange."

Natasha and Clint glanced at each other but then nodded in affirmation.

**00000**

Loki grimaced as he watched his flesh gain its blue hue. He despised it, reviled it, but he refused to appear weaker than necessary in front of the mortal. And Loki wanted answers, if this was the only way to preserve strength enough to speak, then so be it. So Loki sat on his bed and waited.

"You're late."

Loki stared unblinkingly at Allan, who had appeared with a blink in the lights.

"Being careful keeps people alive, always important. Anyway, I was learning about what you did, not what I had in mind, but it works."

Allan smiled casually, pleased. Loki maintained his neutral mask, despite the growing weariness and aching of his bones.

"You didn't like it? Pity."

Loki's bored tone made Allan chuckle.

"I had hoped for something more flamboyant, especially from you. But, no matter, you still do not want to kill, I understand. Of course, they might figure out it was you, there may be residual magic on the agents."

"Do you think I am not aware of that? So, you have spies within S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Loki cocked his head, his eyes did not leave the mortal.

"I can't answer that question yet, I know and that's what matters. But I'm curious, what did you do with the ship?

Allan pulled the syringe from his suit pocket, keeping a tight grip on it, and arched an eyebrow in question. Loki eyed it before speaking.

"The position was ideal. I simply-"

A wave of nausea cut Loki off. He dug his fingers into his bed, attempting to dispel it. Frost crept from his fingers, Loki watched it spread until the nausea passed.

"I…I simply disabled any communications, an easy matter. The vessel was conveniently close to a passage between realms. There are now bits and pieces of a human ship littering Svartalfheim, some of the ship is still here but not much."

Loki finished as if nothing had happened. He did not mention how painful it had been to disguise himself, Loki would not give the mortal that satisfaction.

"Interesting, it's a good start, although I expect more from you in the future. I suppose that I am inclined to answer a question of yours now."

Allan still held onto the syringe, smiling patronizingly at Loki.

"Yes, you are. How can doing this possibly help you, how do you benefit from me doing this?"

Loki watched the patronizing grin turn to one of genuine delight.

"Help me? I doesn't, fate is cruel but if you dance with the devil, then what can fate do but bow before you? A dance with the devil, a chance to repay fate, it's a fair risk. You see me as I am now, a mortal holding the life of a god in his hands, but I was not always so fortunate. A man who dances with the devil may eventually make the devil dance for him."

Allan finished with a smug smile. Loki arched an eyebrow, thinking on his words.

"If we had met at a different time…You weave your riddles quite eloquently, for a mortal."

Loki's eye flicked back to the syringe as the ache within him increased.

"That is a wondrous compliment coming from one such as you. Yes, I see you there, I shall give you this but before I do, the ship was only a start. I will not push you to kill, for you do not want to yet, but I expect greater things from you, trickster. You have the power and the ingenuity, anyway, mayhem in exchange for the lives of you and your _friends._ I find that to be a fair trade."

* * *

**AN: Wow a major case of writers block with this chapter. But I got it finished so that's good. What do you think of this one, I would love to hear opinions. I've started writing the next chapter and hopefully won't be hit with more writers block, so maybe it will be up in a few days.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Some references to the other stories in this chapter, only during one part but if you haven't read them then this is just a fair warning. Shouldn't be too confusing.**

* * *

"The sun, finally!"

Tony crowed at the crisp blue sky. Steve stood beside him and placed a hand against the window to feel the temperature.

"It's still pretty cold though."

"You would be the resident expert on cold, after all."

Tony smirked at Steve, who gave a grudging smile.

"I can barely _breath_, I'm laughing _so_ hard. The 'resident expert on cold' could just get the help of a certain someone and see how you like to be frozen."

Steve replied sarcastically, Tony hid his grin by taking a sip of coffee. Just then two snowballs hit them in the back of the head, coffee spilled down Tony's front. They both whipped around. Loki grinned at them from the couch.

"Couldn't help but overhear. I would be glad to help you with that, Steve, although I'm not sure _you_ should have that title."

Tony scowled, wiping the coffee from his shirt.

"You little punk, look what you did!"

"_Oops_, how can I _ever_ make it up to you?"

Loki flicked his wrist, another snowball appeared in his hand. He smirked, tossing it up in the air. Natasha, who sat between where Loki sat and Tony stood, watched the snowball warily.

"I would say, take it outside, but I doubt you all acting like a bunch of kids would be great press. I can see it now, '_worlds greatest superheroes play games instead of helping blizzard victims'_, or something."

Loki sighed, catching the snowball and turning away from Tony.

"Fine…but it would be a shame to let this go to waste."

Tony ducked behind Steve as Loki scanned the room, his crooked grin returning. Loki's eyes landed on Thor, who had just entered the room and was rubbing his eyes. An instant later, Loki lobbed the snowball at his brother and ducked down. It hit Thor square in the face, he took a step back and wiped the snow from his face.

"What?"

Thor glanced around the room, everyone was snickering. Tony pointed at the couch, still smirking. Thor looked towards it, he connected the dots, grinned, and slowly approached the couch. He stopped a few feet from it then he jumped over it, tackling Loki.

"_Yaaah_, you can't hide from me, brother!

Thor pulled Loki into a headlock, ruffling his hair. Loki struggled to break his grip. After a few moments of this, Thor let go, laughing heartily. Loki attempted to grimace as he smoothed his hair but was grinning too widely.

"Which one of you traitors ratted me out?"

Thor pointed to Tony, who instantly made a noise of protest. Loki gave him a mock glare.

"I knew it, I knew I couldn't trust you."

From the corner of his eye, Loki saw Natasha look down and pull a buzzing phone from her pocked. Still grinning, she answered it. After a few moments her smile died and she ducked her head, allowing hair to obscure her face. Loki felt a lurch of dread but kept his grin and continued to laugh with the others.

"I have to ask, brother, why did you have that snow to begin with?"

"He hit Steve and I in the back of the head with some just before you came in."

Thor casually put an arm around Loki, smiling contentedly. Loki grinned and nodded. When he was able to, Loki glanced back at Natasha. She placed her phone back into her pocket and they made brief eye contact. Loki arched an eyebrow in innocent intrigue. She shook her head, waving a dismissive hand.

**00000**

"Are you sure? I mean, our knowledge on how magic works is shaky at best."

Natasha and Clint stood with Fury, deep within one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s complexes. They looked at a number of screens displaying large amounts of data.

"All traces we found on the agents match almost perfectly with data recorded by us, Stark, everything else, we tested everything we have. Maybe there is something we don't know but right now, Loki is our prime suspect."

Fury brought up data being compared side-by-side. The two agents looked through it without a word. Natasha sighed after a while.

"We were expecting this at first but…what will we do about him?"

Beside her, Clint continued to stare at the data, jaw clenched. Fury entered something more into the panels and other data was brought up, this time accompanied with an image of Loki.

"He knows too much, if he disappears then he has enough blackmail material to cripple us. We have to plan this without his knowledge. The others need to be told, you do that and make sure he isn't eavesdropping. We need to act quickly, if he gets even the slightest suspicion, he'll bolt."

They discussed the situation for a while longer. After Fury dismissed them, Clint and Natasha stood within an elevator as it ascended, both of them wore grim expressions.

"Tony and Thor are going to take this the hardest."

Clint muttered, Natasha thought back to that morning and nodded in agreement.

**00000**

Loki pretended to be oblivious to the change in most everyone's easiness with him. The change was subtle enough to be unnoticed by most, but Loki knew. It seemed that the only ones that hadn't been told yet were Thor and Tony. Loki had a feeling that when they were told, the act would end. He could flee now, but Loki wanted it to be on their terms, he would relish what time he had left.

"Hey, earth to Loki, did you hear anything Nat just said?"

Tony waved a hand in front of Loki's face, making him blink and refocus on the conversation at hand.

"What? Oh…no, I must have dozed off for a moment. Sorry, what were you saying?"

Everyone, but Tony and Thor, watched him with masked uncertainty. Natasha, who was the best at disguising her emotions, sighed with amused weariness.

"_I said_, we were planning on seeing a movie but it's from a series you don't like, is it alright if we, you know…"

She trailed off, making an apologetic face. Loki's heart sank but he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Alright, you can go without me, I don't mind."

The team grinned in unison, relief was apparent on the faces of most. They stood and moved towards the elevator, Thor ruffling Loki's hair with a smile as he passed. Tony paused for a moment, grinning as well.

"I would stay behind but I actually do want to see this movie. Don't get too lonely while we're gone."

Loki returned his sincere grin.

"I'll keep that in mind, have fun with your movie."

With that, Loki was left alone on the couch He wondered if they would actually wait the movie length or come back early. Looking at the descending sun, Loki hoped the latter, before the poison would take hold.

"Jarvis, what security measures are enabled for the tower?"

"I…I am being blocked from telling you them, sir."

Loki gave a resigned sigh.

"That's alright, thank you for trying, Jarvis."

They had blocked him, Loki had expected that but it still stung. Loki scowled, he never should have grown attached to these people. That had never been the plan, the accident of saving Tony's life should have ended with Tony in his debt, not _this_. The team's company had been amusing but Loki had intended to leave once he grew bored of it. Then the incident with Lilith happened, by the end of that he realized that his amusement had turned to genuine fondness, that their company was something he enjoyed.

"Damn me."

Loki muttered into the silence. He could have drawn away, he should have. Perhaps if he had, none of this would be so painful. But there was some hope, Tony was smart enough, or stupid enough, one of those two, to find what Loki left for him. It came down to whether or not Tony would believe him. Loki knew that everything was in place, so there was nothing left to do but wait.

About an hour later, Loki heard the elevator. He hoped they would not just shoot him, that would not end well for anyone. The elevator doors opened, Loki did not turn to look.

"Brother…they…they accuse you of-"

"They are correct."

Loki cut Thor off, wincing at the sharp inhalations he heard. He took a moment to compose himself, then turned to face his friends. That was a mistake Loki regretted immediately. Tony and Thor had matching looks of shock, although Thor's contained slightly more disappointment. Behind them stood everyone else. As he expected, Clint and Natasha held their weapons warily.

"Loki, don't try anything, please."

Steve spoke slowly. Loki did not move, keeping silent, although he did not try to hide the regret in his eyes. Thor spoke again, his voice was shaky.

"I…it always ends back here…doesn't it brother?"

There was a pain in Loki's chest not connected with the conversation at hand. Loki had to go soon, if he waited much longer he would be too weak to leave and the mortal would certainly not show up in the midst of this. He spoke, preparing to flee.

"It seems that way. But I must…must take my leave."

"We can't let you do that."

Natasha's voice was harsh, but there was regret in her eyes. Both she and Clint aimed their weapons at him. Loki gave a small smile and stepped back.

"I apologize but it is nec-"

Clint's arrow pierced Loki's shoulder and he gasped, he had not thought about the weakness of the thin mortal clothes he wore. Loki twisted, there was a gunshot, a pain in his upper leg, then he was gone.

**00000**

Thick dust coated the ground Loki lay on. He opened his eyes, taking in his old hiding place. The pain of an arrow against bone jarred him back to awareness. Loki lurched up, cupping his shoulder, he had to pull the arrow out, his body would not begin to heal the wound until he did. After a moment of consideration, Loki grabbed the arrow and tugged.

"_A-augh_…damn Midgardian clothes."

Loki threw the arrow aside, noting the flesh that clung to it, he grimaced. Healing it with magic would be too risky but he had to staunch the bleeding. Loki glanced around the room and flicked a finger towards the curtains of his magicked windows. They flew towards him and Loki ripped the cloth, pressing it against his shoulder. Then he turned his attention to his thigh.

"I'll have to get you out with magic…digging around in my leg does not sound appealing in the slightest."

His shoulder throbbed as Loki placed a hand on his leg. As Loki worked the magic he glanced around the room. The dust and cobwebs gave it a desolate air, the blood didn't help. When he had first discovered this room, the top of an old apartment complex, sealed off due to some accident or faulty technology, it had taken him time to covert it to something respectable. Adding large, false, windows and stealing furniture, which had irked him, had the converted the room into something resembling his one on Asgard.

Loki looked back to his leg as he experienced a sharp with jolt of pain. Natasha's bullets lay in his hand, he placed it off to the side and put pressure onto the wound with his other hand. Now that the immediate pain was dealt with, Loki began to notice the ache in his bounds and the sickly sweet taste on his tongue. This location change would test what the man had said, that Loki should not worry because he knew exactly where to find him when the time came.

Once Loki allowed his Jotun form to take over the blood that seeped from his wounds became black and cold. Loki grimaced at the dark stains. He attempted to think about anything but the team but was failing miserably now that there was nothing to do.

"Well, they could have killed me, they didn't though. They didn't want to kill me, that's a positive."

"Staying positive is good."

Loki jumped, which caused him to wince. Allan looked around the room with intrigue.

"So, you were able to find me, admirable."

Allan turned to smile at Loki.

"Of course. It looks like your exit caused some chaos within the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Did it, does that count to you?"

Loki sat up straighter still holding the blood saturated cloth against his shoulder.

"Yes…I suppose it does. _See_, look how easily you cause mayhem without even trying?"

Dust scattered as Allan leaned against a chair, grinning at Loki expectantly.

"I ask my question, then? Alright, you said this poison was being developed for years before I came around. Why, how did you make it?"

Allan chuckled, smiling with ease.

"Yes, I was making it before you came around. The possibility for magic may be rare among humans but we obviously can posses it. Those who are power in certain magicks could have been manipulated by me. See, I specialize in the quiet type of magic, perfect for subterfuge and blackmail, not the flashy stuff."

Blood dripped from beneath the cloth on Loki's shoulder. There was a pause as Allan watched it.

"How I made it, is a far more complicated matter. I shall give you the basics though. It required patience, money, times, and blood. All kinds of blood, the blood of those with an affinity towards magic, that was the hardest to find, but also other blood. I even nabbed some blood of the Chitauri, from your first attack on Earth, that turned out to be well worth the risk."

Loki's concentration wavered as the combination of nausea and blood loss affected him. He shook himself back to focus, the itching skin around his shoulder and thigh told him that the wounds had begun to heal. Allan waited patiently for him.

"As I was saying, after years of work I perfected my darling. Of course, testing it was a hassle but I would say that it worked out well. That answers your questions well enough. I shall administer the inhibitor then take my leave. But, now that you are free of the Avengers, I expect interesting things from you."

**00000**

The team sat around the main room, recently returned from S.H.I.E.L.D., everyone was silent. Clint stared in the droplet's of Loki's that spattered the floor. Thor stood, without a word, and left the room for his. Slowly, the room emptied out as everyone left for their own rooms. Tony was the last one left an hour and a half later. He stared out the window blankly, thinking back on the day.

"This is a bad joke, this is the least funny joke you've ever pulled, Loki."

The dark tower did not answer back. Tony dug his nails into his palm, gritting his teeth. The silence stretched on and finally, Tony let out a frustrated moan.

* * *

**AN: I actually finished this one a few days ago but got distracted by various other things, so it's out now. I may have made myself sad during parts of this, oh well. What do you all think so far? So you know, like I said in the first chapter's author's notes, Sif will be in this story, she's coming soon and you'll figure out why, and how, when she does. I would love to get your opinions, if you have them. **


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next few days, pictures of the Avengers without Loki spawned internet rumors and speculation. Some guessing that there had been a falling out, others talking about him being on some sort of secret mission. Ever theory had its fans, but none had any actual evidence.

Loki found it all very interesting, seeing the number of people defending him. It was strange, S.H.I.E.L.D. had not released the knowledge of his betrayal yet. Loki wanted to know why not, why would they withhold information that could affect people's safety, moral perhaps?

Even stranger considering the other rumors about the problems of the last few days and a red haired man that often showed up in pictures near them. Honestly, Loki found it fascinating how vigilant and clever some of these humans were. Some pointed to a man that appeared in the back of a newsfeed when power to most of the city went out, then again when a menacing looking storm appeared out of nowhere, only to disappear for no reason.

Those things were minor, mischief not mayhem, but they were a test. Loki needed to see just how vigilant Allan was, to decrease suspicion. The longer he waited, however, the slimmer the chance of the new part of his plan working, there would be little time to waste.

"This will work…help is needed."

Loki muttered into the dark apartment. As dawn he would go, that would give him enough time. Loki twirled Clint's arrow between his fingers, wondering if Tony had found what Loki had left him yet.

**00000**

Faint rays of light illuminated Loki's face as he stood in Central Park. He remembered Tony talking about how sketchy it was to be here when it was dark. Loki hoped that this fact would decrease the chance of someone seeing him but, as a precaution, he did change his appearance. Red hair fell in front of his eyes as Loki leapt from one of the bridges, landing lightly on the path below. The sound of someone walking came from the path above. Loki brushed the hair from his eyes as he continued making his way towards the passage entrance.

The darkness cleared as Loki exited the passage between realms and Asgard's sea could be seen. One of the first things that caught Loki's attention was the activity on the Bifrost. Even from here, many figures could be seen moving, it seemed that they were rebuilding the bridge.

"Mmm…about time I suppose."

Loki allowed his glamour to fall away, returning to his normal, dark haired, self. He quickly worked his way towards the golden city, morphing the clothes he wore back into his Asgardian ones, as he did. A few people recognized him, dipping their head in acknowledgement as he passed. He ascended towards the golden palace, an Aesir guard addressed him within its walls.

"Prince Loki, what brings you back to Asgard?"

Loki took a moment to answer him.

"Personal business, nothing important."

The guard bowed as he left. Loki moved through the corridors, relieved by the attitude he had encountered so far. Either, due to his ability to conceal himself from Hiemdall, they did not know about what had occurred or they knew about Allan and therefore did not blame Loki. Just then he turned a corner and was met by Sif. She stopped, blinking rapidly in surprise.

"Ah, Lady Sif, what luck."

Sif eyed him with a hint of distrust.

"Loki, what are you doing here?"

"I am here because I need help. Something happened on Midgard, Thor is in danger."

Loki knew Sif cared more for Thor, this would be the easiest way to convince her to come with him. As expected, Sif frowned with concern, though still seemed wary.

"What do you mean? Why hasn't Heimdall informed the All-Father of this?"

"Because the person that did it possesses magic, they may be deceiving Heimdall. I came here because we need help but we can't be too conspicuous. Even this is a risk, I believe he poisoned Thor and has threatened to kill him, he's watching us, me slipping away is a risk we had to take."

Sif appeared alarmed, most of her distrust melting away.

"We need to tell the All-Father."

Loki quickly shook his head.

"Too risky, the more time I am here, the higher the chance of the mortal finding out. If we tell the All-Father, then what he might do could alert the mortal and kill Thor. Please Sif, I need your help."

They locked eyes, Sif still processing what Loki had said. Both stayed that was for a moment, then Sif gave a grim nod. Loki repressed a grin of relief, instead nodding in thanks.

"Thank you, Sif. Now quickly, follow me."

They moved through the city, Sif's double bladed spear concealed beneath a cloak. Sif hissed questions into Loki's ear as they walked.

"You said he was poisoned. Do you know how?"

"We confronted a man then day before this happened. Thor said the man sprayed him with some form of gas, but that he felt fine. We tested him with some Midgardian technology but found nothing, so we thought everything was fine. Then, the next morning, he was gone, Mjolnir still in his room. Later, the man confronted us again and told us what he had done."

When they reached he cliffs, Sif arched an uncertain eyebrow.

"This 'passage'…how does it work?"

Loki paused, balancing on the cliff face, and turned his head to look back at her.

"That's not important, just trust me."

He turned back, but not before hearing Sif mutter something under her breath. Loki hid his grin.

They exited the passage, eyes adjusting to the light. Loki pulled Sif out onto a path then gave a small bow.

"Thank you, Lady Sif."

She frowned in concern.

"Well, yes. Wha-"

Loki gave a tight smile, then turned and disappeared. Sif stared at the spot he had been in growing outrage. People gave her strange looks as they passed. She stayed this was for a few moments more.

"Loki!"

**00000**

Tony worked furiously, blasting music as he did. Suddenly the music cut off, Tony looked up with annoyance.

"Loki, why do you always-"

Steve grimaced in apology as Tony trailed off. There was a silent moment before Tony spoke.

"Umm…what do you want, Steve?"

"Fury called us in immediately, apparently it's important. No, I don't think it's about him."

Steve answered Tony's silent question.

The team entered the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. Agents directed them to the correct floor, where Fury was waiting. He gave them a nod of acknowledgement.

"Director, what is it?"

Natasha asked. Fury looked to Thor.

"Someone who knows you, Thor. Loki brought her here."

The god frowned in confusion.

"What, who?"

Fury motioned to someone in the room beside him. Flanked by two agents, a woman, with long dark hair and armor, entered the room. Thor gazed at her in shock.

"Sif!"

"Thor you are fine…I should have known Loki was lying."

Sif looked relieved to see Thor, but scowled angrily. Thor recovered from his shock and spoke again.

"Loki brought you here…why?"

The team watched the exchange with interest. Sif huffed angrily.

"He said you were in trouble, poisoned by some gas, threatened to be killed."

Tony's eyes widened as Sif spoke and interjected.

"Wait…gas, poison?"

"Tony, he was lying. He probably used that example on purpose."

Bruce put a hand on Tony's shoulder. Tony went silent but turned away from the conversation, lost in thought. Sif arched a questioning eyebrow to Thor.

"So Loki betrayed you, that's what I am gathering. After the All-Father pardoned him, after we trusted him again…"

Steve spoke up after she trailed off.

"That is what we assume, but it doesn't make sense why he would bring you here."

"Perhaps to get me away from Asgard. Although, I do not see how that would help him much, all artifacts are locked away securely."

Fury interrupted their conversation with a look of discontent.

"Whatever the reason, we can't exactly get you back to Asgard."

"Yes, but the Bifrost is being repaired as we speak. Once it is completed I can return, perhaps with Loki to face justice."

Sif nodded, intoning her head towards Thor, who brightened at the mention of the Bifrost, but fell back into a frown.

"That is good, you should stay with us until the Bifrsot is repaired. I could use the help of an old friend."

After a moment, Fury nodded in confirmation.

"Another Asgardian would certainly be helpful, especially with Loki going rouge again. If she's trustable, then I'm fine with it."

**00000**

"Umm…I guess you can stay in this room. I'm going to assume you can figure out how the tech works but, just in case, ask a question and Jarvis will answer you. Jarvis is the AI, by the way."

Tony opened the door to a plain room, speaking nervously with Sif. He turned to leave but she caught his arm, turning him to look back at her.

"You are the one that was friends with Loki, yes?"

"What do you mean?"

Sif let go of his arm.

"Thor told us about all of you when he was last in Asgard. He also told us about the mortal who had become good friends with Loki."

"Well, we all did. But yeah, I did, he risked his life saving me from some aliens."

"Ah… I am sorry that he betrayed you."

Sif gave an apologetic smile and entered the room, leaving Tony outside. Tony left, wandering through the hallways without thinking. He found himself in front of Loki's door.

"Oh…god dammit."

He was about to go but, against his better judgment, entered the room.

"Stop being so hesitant, it's your damn house."

Loki's roomed seemed just as it always was, heavy drapes covering the glass windows, strange books and scrolls overflowing from their shelves, a shimmering tapestry of a snake hanging above the bed. Tony inspected the tapestry, not wanting to look at the room. The snake almost appeared alive, woven coils shifting every so often, cloth eyes fixated on Tony.

"Because this is something I would want over me while I sleep."

Tony muttered to himself, eyes moving to the pattern near the tapestry's edge. Among the loops, figures could be seen. Tony picked out a wolf, large and dark furred, looming from behind the looping patterns. It flitted from sight. Then Tony picked out the shape of a horse, black against the green. It reered, displaying eight legs, then disappeared along with the wolf.

"Wait…"

Thinking back to what Norse myths he had read when Thor and Loki had come around, Tony frowned. An eight legged horse, a wolf, a snake. Tony peered at the tapestry again. He saw something else move and tried to pinpoint it. Eventually he was able to make out a humanoid shape, before it too disappeared into the pattern.

"You've got to be joking…"

If he remembered correctly, honestly weird stuff like this was a bit hard to forget then these could be Loki's kids in the myths. Loki had often scoffed when Norse myths were brought up, although Tony had never gotten a straight answer on the kids thing. This seemed to be an pretty good answer in itself. But why would Loki leave this here, it seemed like something he would want.

Tony thought back to what Sif had told them, about Loki's lie to get her here. Gas, feeling fine at first, poison, someone holding him against his will. Maybe he wasn't lying, maybe he was hinting. Tony's mind raced with possibilities as he eyed the magical tapestry.

"It's worth a try…umm…hey, Loki's…kids, why did he leave you here?"

The snake pattern shifted, giving Tony the impression of being watched. He felt incredibly strange, standing in an empty room, talking to a tapestry. Nothing more happened, but the shift in mood encouraged him.

"Okay…maybe I need your names. Jarvis, what are Loki's kids named?"

There was a small pause, then Jarvis answered.

"In the myths, the most famous of his children are as followed. Jormungandr; the World Serpent, Sleipnir; the Steed of Odin, Fenrir; the monstrous wolf, and Hel; who presides over a realm of the same name."

"Thanks Jarvis."

Tony locked eyes with the woven snake, ignoring the lurch of fear that came up as he did.

"I'm definitely crazy. Alright, Jormu-Jormun- how the hell do you say that…Jormungandr, that's you, right?"

The serpent shifted slightly again, coils of cloth sliding past each other. A low hiss seemed to fill the air. Tony felt incredibly tense and looked away.

"Maybe talking to the giant serpent is a bad idea. Probably not the wolf either… Maybe, Hel, are you there?"

There was a pause, in which Tony felt incredibly awkward. Then something else moved in the tapestry, a humanoid figure climbed from the outer pattern to stand by the snake, growing as it did. When it finished, a woman, with half of her face woven to be blonde and fair and the other darkened, stared down at him.

"Okay, this may be one of the weirdest things I've done in a while. So…tapestry picture of Hel, umm…"

Tony trailed off uncertainly.

The tapestry woman stared at him for a moment longer, then a female voice sounded in Tony's head, smooth and full of power.

"Anthony Stark, our father hoped you would find this."

It took Tony a moment to recover from his surprise.

"What…what is this thing?"

The tapestry Hel stroked Jormungandr as the voice sounded again.

"Old magic, we are separated but through this, communication is possible. Although, I would not advise you speaking with the others."

The tapestry Jormungandr hissed softly in Tony's head, rattling him. Tony took a calming breath before speaking again.

"Loki wanted me to find this, why?"

"Because he could not tell you himself. The mortal is incredibly vigilant, if he had even the slightest suspicion that my father had told you, he would not have appeared and my father would have died."

Hel's voice was emotionless, cold.

"What do you mean, '_the mortal_', who is that? How can I even believe you?"

An increase in pressure made Tony wince, the sensation disappeared after a few moments. Hel spoke again, an edge to her previously neutral voice.

"I may aid my father now, but I would not wish to get caught up in his schemes and bitterness. I tell the truth because my father needed some was to tell you what has occurred. There is a mortal, the one that gave my father the poison, he is threatening both my father's life and your lives if my father does not cause mayhem."

"What Loki said to Sif, that _was_ about him wasn't it?"

Tony began to pace, growing excited. In the tapestry another figure moved to the center, a massive wolf, dark furred and hulking. Its presence alone was disconcerting. Tapestry Hel nodded to it.

"Yes Fenrir, it is one of the mortals. A friend of father's. And yes to you as well, Anthony. Father said he would be laying more trails for you to find."

"So Loki didn't betray us! How can we help him?"

Tony's excitement grew as he thought about the situation.

"It cannot be obvious that you know. If my father does something to cause a fight, I assume he will, you must find a way to tell him that you know the truth. He assumes that the mortal must have a cure but does not wish to fail and die, for the man could go after you all. There may be some way to track this man, or at least prepare you should my father die."

The seriousness of the situation settled on Tony, muffling his excitement.

"Did he tell you what he was going to do?"

"He did not know, himself."

Tapestry Hel brushed blonde hair from he face.

"I need to show everyone else this, we have to start figuring something out."

Tony felt some displeasure coming from Hel, he flinched at the accompanying increase in pressure.

"We would rather not speak with everyone, but if they will not believe you otherwise, we will show them. Fetch the others and perhaps you can save father."

Hel's presence retreated slightly and tapestry Hel nodded towards the door. Tony could have just had Jarvis call the others, but it was obvious Loki's kids wanted him to leave. Perhaps is would be easier to convince the others if he had time to explain otherwise. Tony nodded back and left the room.

"Holy shit…just…_holy shit_."

* * *

**AN: I'll keep this short(certain...pictures from a certain Crimson Peak are distracting me). Hopefully doing the whole kids thing was okay, it was my favorite way to get the information to Tony and I have a soft spot for Norse mythology. What do you think of this chapter, of the story so far? Hopefully the next will be out in a few days.**


	6. Chapter 6

"So, you brought another Asgardian to Earth."

Allan cocked his head. Loki leaned against the counter, ignoring the throbbing in his limbs and the frost that crept from his fingers.

"I did."

There was a short silence, in which Allan pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Mmm…what do you hope to accomplish with this?"

"What you wish me to do, cause mayhem. There are many ways to go about this, you shall have to trust my abilities."

Loki winced as a wave of fatigue rolled over him. The room went in and out of focus for a few moments. During this time, Allan took the syringe from his suit pocket, gazing at it absently.

"Trust…that's a high order to ask of someone, although I'm sure you know that. Of course, I can't trust you but I can rely on your desperation. So, no answering questions tonight."

"Fair enough, let's get this over with."

Loki continued to lean heavily against the counter, preparing to leave his Jotun form. Allan gave a short nod and smiled.

"Alright, but before I do, you should watch yourself, trickster. Don't push me too far. You came quite close to doing just that today."

Allan's smile contrasted with his low tone. Loki gave an unflinching nod.

**00000**

"I never knew about this tapestry. Why did Loki never tell me about it?"

Thor mused, rocking back on his heels as he stared out over the city. The team and Sif sat in silence behind him, waiting for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to arrive, as Natasha had called Fury just after Tony had shown them the tapestry and Hel had told them what had happened to Loki. Originally, Thor had been ecstatic to learn of his brother's innocence but his enthusiasm had quickly been tempered by the precarious situation.

"Don't be too hurt, I don't think he told anyone about it. _Also_, I need to ask something, how many of the other myths are true? 'Cause I'm a bit suspicious after the whole, talking to Loki's freaky ass kids, thing."

Tony asked, partially to get the dark look off Thor's face before he caused the storm and partially because he was genuinely curious. After a few moments of consideration, Thor shrugged.

"Not all, you would have to specify which. But that is not important now. We must somehow contact Loki and tell him that we know. This man cannot be allowed to continue his foul meddling."

Thunder rumbled as storm clouds gathered outside. Tony nodded at Thor's words, thinking back to Loki's behavior after the gas, checking his blood work and the security feed. It was strange that Jarvis had picked up nothing.

"Jarvis, I need to see the security feed myself, might as well see the blood work for Loki too."

"I will transfer it to your laptop, sir."

Tony stood and grabbed one of his laptops, which was sitting on the counter. He returned to the couch and flipped it open, going to the newly downloaded items. Opening the security feed first, Tony chose the recording for the night after Loki had been sprayed with the gas and looked for the one in Loki's room. He found and expanded the image.

Starting when Loki first entered the room, Tony and the others, who peered at the screen as well, watching. In the recording, Loki lay on his bed, reading. After a few minutes, Loki set the book aside and continued to lie down.

"You don't look at these unless you have to, right? I mean, this feels a bit invasive."

Steve pointed out, glancing to Tony, who arched an eyebrow.

"No, Jarvis does all the checking usually. Trust me, I get the privacy thing. Why, is there something I should know, _Captain_?"

Tony snickered at Steve's expression. Their attention was brought back to the screen as Loki lurched upwards. There was a slight static in the recording, that faded as quickly as it had appeared. Loki stayed in that position, not moving. Tony glanced up to the time, to see if it had paused, but saw nothing strange there. Loki stayed still for some time, then there was another burst of static. When it cleared, Loki sat on the edge of his bed, head bowed.

"That static, it's strange."

"Perhaps it is the man's magic, when it tampers with Jarvis."

Tony frowned at Thor's suggestion.

"Tampering with Jarvis…magic could probably be the only explination because that would take some heavy duty hacking smarts without magic."

They searched the other footage, all showing the same pattern with static. After checking them, Tony switched to the blood work but got nowhere with that. He scowled with frustration. Sif, who was standing behind the couch and leaning over, spoke up.

"Do you still have the blood that you took? Perhaps, if you tested it again, something more could be found."

Tony considered her suggestion for a few moments.

"Maybe. Jarvis, do we still have some of Loki's blood?"

"Yes sir. There is still some left over from your previous tests."

Jarvis answered, Tony grinned with surprise.

"Well, then it's worth a try."

Down in the lab, Tony and Bruce began to test the blood, everyone else watched. At one point, Bruce frowned and looked up from his microscope.

"What the…Tony come here."

Bruce moved away from the microscope as Tony scooted over and looked into it.

"The hell?"

"So I take it that's not what you saw last time."

Tony continued to look into the microscope with a frown. Everyone else looked on with renewed interest.

"What is it?"

Natasha asked. Tony entered a few commands on a panel next to him and brought up the magnification on a screen for everyone to see.

"This is definitely different from last time. I mean, his blood isn't exactly normal anyway, but this doesn't look healthy."

The magnified blood was obviously not human, it was too dark a red and with an overabundance of cells. But a tendril of some inky dark substance seemed out of place. Even as they watched, the tendril snagged a cell. The cell was engulfed by the darkness, crushing it from within. The tendril retreated, leaving the cell crumpled and black, like many of the others around it. But even as they watched the cell began to return to its normal color, expanding again. Then the tendril returned in, what seemed to be, an endless cycle.

"That must be the poison. I suppose because this blood hasn't been cured or whatever the guy does, the poison is functioning properly."

Tony said quietly as they watched the process.

"I guess that when the cells return to their normal color, they're healing themselves…but they can't get rid of the poison."

He continued uncertainly. From behind Tony, Thor made a low noise in the back of his throat.

"This would probably continue until my brother ran out of energy to sustain it, being excruciatingly painful all the while."

They watched as the cell was assaulted many time more until, when the tendril withdrew, it stayed dead. Tony grimaced as the tendril of poison moved onto another cell, imagining this happening on a large scale.

"It's strange though, we've had this sample for a while now, shouldn't the cells be completely dead?"

"Maybe it's because they were in frozen stasis. That might have slowed this whole process down."

Bruce offered, moving back to the microscope and sitting down.

"Do you think we could isolate the poison? From that we might be able to understand how the poison works."

Tony brought up other calculations that were being run. The rest of the team thought on the situation. Steve spoke up.

"If the poison is inhibited by the cold, could Loki bring himself to a low enough temperature to halt it until we can figure out a cure?"

Bruce shrugged, considering the possibility.

"Maybe, he can survive much colder temperatures than us, right Thor? Could that work?"

Thor frowned thoughtfully.

"Perhaps…it is true that Ice Giants can survive extremely cold temperatures, but they're still active at those. But I think at some temperature it can become too cold even for Jotuns. I am not all together sure, I was not the one to study these intricacies."

A slightly sheepish smile twitched Thor's lips as he finished speaking. Tony chewed his lower lips as he shifted through the data and listened to the conversation.

"Even if we could that would mess with the whole, "_if Loki dies, the guy will go after us"_, thing."

Steve sighed, abandoning his idea, and was about to respond when Jarvis spoke.

"Sir, S.H.I.E.L.D. has arrived, shall I let them in?"

"Yeah, tell them we'll be down in a minute."

Tony replied, turning away from the data. Bruce stood, picking up what was left of the blood sample.

"Should I freeze this again?"

"Yes, we need more time to work with it later."

Together the team and Sif descended towards the agents.

Directory Fury and six other agents waited as the elevator doors opened. He gave the team an expectant look as they stepped out.

"What was so important that you had to call me here?"

"It's a long explanation."

Natasha replied as she shifted her eyes between the other agents. Fury got the message and turned to them.

"Wait outside, I don't need your help in here right now."

The agents nodded and left the building. Fury turned back to the team with a slight frown.

"Alright, now talk."

"We know that Loki is being manipulated."

There was a short silence following Tony's words. Fury gave him a disbelieving stare.

"Do you now?"

Steve cut in before Tony could reply to Fury.

"Look, we can show you, it's true."

"I'll give you all the benefit of doubt and not call you crazy, show me your proof."

**00000**

After having Hel explain, which Tony let Thor ask for, he didn't want to get on the bad side of the godlings, everyone sat around a large table. Fury looked over the newly recorded blood work.

"So, what do you think?"

Tony watched Fury expectantly. After a few more moments, Fury looked up.

"I will need to record this data and put it into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database. I would record the conversation with, what was her name, Hel, but I don't know how exactly that would work seeing as she doesn't actually speak aloud."

Bruce nodded in confirmation of Fury's words. Then a dull boom radiated from somewhere in the city and everyone tensed. Steve bounded to get a better look out the windows.

"There's something a few streets from here. I'm not sure what it is, but it's big."

Steve turned to Sif and the team, then to Fury, who spoke.

"If it's Loki, find a way to contact him. To put it straight, I'd rather not have to deal with some psychopath with the power to blackmail a god and a bunch of displeased monster kids, if Loki dies."

There was another noise, this time a screeching sound, and Steve nodded.

Down on the streets the team found the noise's source. A massive beast, with long fangs below four dark eyes and huge clawed paws, overturned a car. It lunged towards a fleeing woman but was brought short, rearing its head with a loud huff. Atop it sat a man, pale and with long red hair, wearing human clothes. The man pointed and the beast turned away from its previous target.

Steve looked to the rest of the team.

"Long red hair, pale, matches the description of the disguise Loki was using. Think it's him?"

Without taking his eyes off the beast, Thor nodded.

"It's most definitely him, that beast is not of Midgard. What should we do?"

This time it was Tony who spoke up.

"I think you have the best chance of getting close enough to tell him, we can take care of the-"

The beast took a bounding leap, landing a few cars away from them. The thing reared again as Loki held out a hand.

"Hello, wonderful day isn't it?"

It was Loki's voice, but with the slight lilt of an American accent, which Tony would have found hysterical if a giant beast wasn't glaring down at them. Tony looked to Steve, who nodded at Thor before turning to him and speaking quickly.

"Say something to get him off the thing, from there we can take care of it and let Thor fight with Loki."

Tony quickly searched for what to say.

"What, is this another of your monster kids?"

His words had the desired affect, not fury but surprise. Loki's eyes widened for a moment before returning to their leer. Loki indeed leapt from the animal and stood beside it.

"Don't be idiotic, of course not. None of my children would ever do something so mundane."

Loki made another motion and the beast leapt towards them. The Avengers and Sif dove out of the way, Thor made a beeline for Loki while the others converged on the creature.

Thor closed in on his brother but was hesitant to strike with Mjolnir. Before they collided Loki dodged away, but not before hissing something in Thor's ear.

"Do you know?"

They turned to each other, Thor gave a nearly imperceptible nod. For a moment Loki visibly smiled but then his smile turned crooked with the act. This time it was Loki, still with red hair, that moved first. A dagger flashed in his hand as Loki stabbed towards Thor. But his slow movements, seemingly purposeful, allowed Thor to grab his arm and pin him against an abandoned car. Thor spoke quickly and quietly.

"Yes, what should we do?"

Loki pretended to struggle while hissing his reply.

"We need some form of trap to kill the man, I'm not sure how yet."

"But then you would die."

Thor saw the desperation flash in his brother's eyes and felt a pang of dread. Loki broke free from their mock struggle and leapt back. While this was happening, the team continued to fight with the monster. It seemed like they were holding back, as if to buy Thor more time.

Loki made a small motion for Thor to attack him again. Thor did, this time swinging Mjolnir to deflect Loki's dagger. They grappled for far longer than Loki normally would so that they could exchange more words.

"We don't have to kill him, he must have a cure. S.H.I.E.L.D. can-"

"_No_, don't let all of S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to this information. He has infiltrated it, he will find out if you do!"

Loki cut Thor off as they matched blows. Behind them the beast reared as the Hulk hit it with a car, they couldn't distract it for much longer without looking suspicious.

"Bruce and Tony still have the sample of your blood, we may be able to develop a cure from that."

Thor noticed Loki wince and grit his teeth for a short moment. Remembering the image of the poison engulfing Loki's blood, Thor loosened his grip on his brother's arm. Loki hissed a response as the moment passed.

"I have a feeling that would take some time. Taking this man out is more important."

Just then, the beast collapsed, dead. Loki locked eyes with his brother, who gave a worried grimace then loosened his grip even more for Loki to pull away. Loki gave a mock leer and disappeared.

The team and Sif rejoined Thor, eager to hear what had transpired.

"Friends, we cannot let Director Fury take the information back to S.H.I.E.L.D. with him."

"What, why not?"

"According to Loki, the man has spies within S.H.I.E.L.D., he would know that we have found out the truth."

Across from Thor, Steve gave a grim nod and turned towards the tower.

"Alright, let's convince Fury."

**00000**

Loki sat on his couch, watching a filigree of ice creep across its threads. He thought back to his talk with Thor. They knew, the risk had been worth it. The next goal was stopping Allan, together. Of course, Thor would never willingly let Loki die, most likely neither would Tony, but that was a far better option then having Allan alive. Loki grimaced as a spike in pain disrupted his thoughts.

"Mmm…hurry up."

"Don't be impatient."

Allan's voice was amused. Loki snapped his head up to stare at him.

"You do love your entrances, don't you?"

"Finding joy in mundane things is a good way to look at life."

Loki's silence made Allan smile even wider.

"Interesting show today, where _did_ you get that beast?"

"Not Earth, doesn't really matter where I got it."

"Fair enough, I did enjoy that though. Panicked many people, it was fun to watch. So, question time."

Allan took the syringe from his suit pocket, grinning expectantly. Loki ignored another spike in pain and gathered his thoughts.

"Yes…tell me about yourself."

There was a short pause as Allan arched a surprised eyebrow.

"Not really a question but I can tell you a bit. I made a large amount of money when I was younger, doing a variety of things and being a generally upstanding citizen. I took many tropical vacations to isolated places, searching for people with magical capacity in areas where the main world wouldn't miss them if they disappeared. That took some time but it was useful."

Allan paused for a moment as Loki interrupted.

"So that's how you got the blood."

"Indeed. After that I set up a stable network to aid me in creating my masterpiece. Then, to most of the world, I died. That's the best way to fall off the radar, after all. Tragic, horrible death, one that leaves people lamenting your early fall from grace. From there I worked on my darling in peace. You can guess the rest."

Loki kept his neutral expression but noticed Allan's smile waver for a moment.

"No personal details, I see. That tells quite a bit in itself, not a nice past, eh?"

There was a tense moment before Allan chuckled.

"You didn't ask for personal details. But I believe that's enough questions for now. I appreciate your work today, I see good things in our future."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

**AN: This chapter took a bit longer than I had anticipated, I had writers block for a while. But it's my longest yet, so I guess that can make up for it. Also I will finally break the 7 chapter curse that seemed to hang around me with these stories, because I've planned at least two more chapters before this thing finishes. How do you like this chapter and the story so far? Hopefully the next chapter will be up later this week sometime.**


	7. Chapter 7

Tony and Bruce spent a large portion of the next few days in the lab. It had taken the better part of a day to successfully isolate a concentrated amount of the poison and a sample of unaffected cells. Now they both inspected the samples, attempting to come up with theories. Without looking away from his work, Bruce spoke up.

"It's pretty fascinating, seeing these differences on a molecular level. Maybe in the long run this could help us better understand how magic works."

"Bruce, buddy, help Loki first, think about scientific breakthroughs later. If only we could trust S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help, this would go by so much faster."

They had caught Fury in time to stop him from bringing the information to S.H.I.E.L.D., although it hadn't pleased him. But as a result they had to work on this problem without the help of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientists. They hadn't heard anything more from Loki in the last few days, which was worrying, but they chose not to focus on it.

"This poison is complex. I can't imagine how long it took to create this and it's not exactly like this is my exact area of expertise."

Tony nodded absently, agreeing with Bruce's words.

"Mm-hm…whoever this guy is, he's damn smart. Maybe if we had a larger sample of the blood it would be easier, or if we could test directly on Loki. But that isn't happening…"

"What if we could?"

Bruce looked over to Tony, who frowned.

"Sorry? How exactly, Hel said he needs an inhibitor every night and we don't know how closely this guy watches him."

"We could convince Loki to let us capture him, then let him "break out" before nightfall. The test could be run under maximum security, we disable any cameras, only use your tech, only let the most trustable people know about it."

Tony considered the idea, finally giving a shrug.

"It could work, we would have to decide what tests we're running beforehand, to cut time. It would be risky, but it's worth a shot."

**00000**

After Fury and the rest of the team agreed to their plan, they decided what tests to run. Soon it became the waiting game, waiting for Loki do to something new. It was another few days before he finally did.

A sudden cut in the lights disrupted Tony and Bruce's work. They leapt up and a moment later the lights returned, dimmer than before.

"_The power?_ My power doesn't go out, it runs on the arc reactor beneath the building!"

Tony protested, scowling. Bruce's eyes adjusted to the dim emergency lights and the light from outside, where another, smaller, blizzard raged. Tony continued to grumble about the power.

"Ridiculous…what a hassle. _I did it myself_, it shouldn't go out because of some stupid blizzard!"

"What if it's not the blizzard?"

Bruce suggested, Tony still seemed affronted.

"What, you mean tampering? You would have to know what to do and those plans are only stored on my databases, that needs my security pass to access and-"

Tony ranted heatedly. Bruce gave an exasperated sigh and cut him off.

"Loki! I'm talking about Loki, he could do this, right?"

There was a small quiet moment as Tony registered Bruce's words.

"Oh…right, of course. That makes sense, he had access to those files. This might be his next move then, hopefully he shows up or we can't tell him our plan."

"We need to go meet with everyone else and hope for the best."

**00000**

Snow blew past Loki, who leaned against the glass railing on the tower's balcony, as he peered down at the darkened tower. They would notice him eventually, although it could take some time as this floor was not one of the more frequented, save for Tony, for both location reasons and some of the past…confrontations that had occurred there.

Taking out the power would slow them down as well, shutting down any security cameras that could see him and alert them to his presence, but in that way it would also slow down Allan. If he couldn't hack the cameras, then he couldn't know exactly what had occurred.

"Come on now Tony, I turned off your power. Surely that irked you enough to search for me."

Loki muttered with a slight smirk, his words were lost in the gale. He leaned precariously over the glass, wind tugging at his hair.

There was a certain feeling of exhilaration that Loki felt, which he discounted as the relief of his friend's help. But in the back of his mind there was another reason. This same exhilaration had occurred during the last problem he had caused. Because the God of Mischief can't help but enjoy what earned him that title.

"_No_, no…that's not why, don't be ridiculous."

More snow pelted his face as Loki shook off the thought. Loki leaned even farther over the glass, gazing down at the dizzying drop. The white fog of his breath was blown past him by the wind.

"Loki, don't!"

Just then a hand yanked him back from the edge. It was Tony, who looked furious. Loki stared at him for a few moments, he had forgotten that the elevators were connected to the emergency power source. They stayed that way, Tony glaring and Loki silent with surprise, for a few more seconds. Then Loki glanced out at the city before grabbing Tony and making a bounding leap, clearing the opposite railing and crashing through the glass windows.

They rolled across the floor before Tony leapt up, jumping away from Loki with a look of shock and sporting a cut on his forehead.

"_What the hell_?"

Loki rose to his feet and made a shushing motion.

"The cameras are still off, yes?"

"Obviously, you cut off my power!"

Tony still seemed angry but spoke softer. Loki nodded, waving a hand at the shattered glass and repairing it.

"Good, that was what I needed, no chance of him hacking your files. We need to talk."

"Damn right we do. What were you doing out there?"

Loki grinned slightly.

"I wasn't going to jump, you know. If I got to choose how I die, it would not be by falling. I don't exactly trust that method after…"

He trailed off, smile fading. Tony's scowl weakened and he sighed.

"Good, but we do need to talk about other things. We came up with a plan, you already simplified the first part by coming to us, but Bruce and I are testing with your blood and the poison, we need a bigger sample because we might be able to make a cure."

Tony's earnest expression made Loki wince.

"You can take another sample, whether or not you can develop a cure…but we need to kill the man, his name is Allan. That's why I came."

"We will be able to develop a cure, two geniuses against one, the odds are in our favor."

Loki didn't respond to Tony's tight smile, instead glancing warily out the windows again.

"Yes wonderful, we should hurry. He most likely knows that I'm here, the less time we spend the better, especially if it looks like we're not fighting. Which floor is everyone else on?"

"Er…where we normally all meet. Why?"

Tony frowned suspiciously at Loki's grin.

"This may hurt, especially because I haven't tried it in ages, but do you trust me?"

"Yeah, what do you mean _hurt_?"

Loki closed his eyes, silently chanting. A grimace of pain crossed his face but he continued. Tony watched him warily.

"What are you-holy shit!"

Tony yelped as what appeared to be a feathered cape appeared around Loki, who grimaced weakly. Then the cape flared out and Tony realized what it actually was. Loki rolled his shoulders stiffly, the noise of ruffling feathers masking his groan.

"Make it look like you are fighting me, if he can see us, in any way, then this will reduce suspicion."

"I…_are those wings_?"

"What do they look like?"

Loki replied impatiently. Tony gaped.

"Those are wings, you have wings. How do they-"

He was cut off as Loki grabbed him and crashed out the window again. Air screamed past them as Tony attempted to appear to be struggling. Loki shifted and their nose dive angled and slowed. They drew away from the tower for a moment before Loki shifted again and the glass rushed towards them. Glass shattered and they tumbled across the floor, yelps of surprise coming from the team.

"Can we _please_ stop breaking my windows?"

Tony groaned as he stood up. Loki was sprawled on the floor, breathing heavily. He closed his eyes and began his silent chant, the feathers slowly disappeared and he sat up. Everyone else was recovering from the surprise, Thor spoke first.

"Brother, Tony, what is happening?"

"Throwing off the fact that I'm speaking with you. Could someone fetch me some water…I think I'm going to be sick."

Clint, who was the closest, went to get him a drink. Thor kneeled next to Loki.

"Why didn't you just fully shape shift? I remember you trying that a long time ago and regretting it greatly."

"Because it's painful to use any magic upon myself and fully changing would most likely be to much…that was painful enough. Damn poison…"

Loki put his head on his knees with a sick look. Thor frowned with worry, glancing back for Clint. There was a small silent moment before Steve spoke.

"Well, besides…whatever just happened, did you tell him what you want to do, Tony?"

"Yeah, he said we could."

Tony ran a hand through his windswept hair. On the floor, Loki mumbled something intelligible.

"What was that?"

"You have to…agree to help me kill Allan before I do…ugh…Regardless of if you have devised a cure or inhibitor."

There was a grim silence following Loki's muffled words. During which, Clint returned with a glass of water. He handed it to Thor, who murmured softly to Loki while offering to him. Loki took it, draining the glass. He sat up slightly straighter, although still appearing off color, and pushed the hair from his face.

"Like I said, killing Allan, which is the man's name if you haven't guessed, is my main concern."

The team and Sif glanced between each other. Thor continued to kneel next to Loki.

"Brother, I believed that I had lost you once, I do not want to again."

"Too bad, Thor! If the opportunity comes and it is between killing him or saving me, he should be the one to die first."

Loki's harsh tone made Thor draw back. He glanced around the group, making sure to meet the eyes of everyone before speaking again.

"If you can develop a way to counter the life's work of this man, then fine. Do we have a deal, my blood for the promise to kill him despite whatever my condition may be?"

There was another pause before everyone gave hesitant nods, Thor and Tony were the last to agree. Loki grinned triumphantly and attempted to stand, only to sit down again with a nauseous look.

"Whatever tests you are going to run, can you do them here?"

Tony and Bruce looked to each other, then shook their heads.

"Not really, all the equipment is in the lab."

Loki sighed heavily.

"Alright, give me a moment."

"Brother, lean on me."

Thor offered him a hand, Loki scowled slightly before taking it.

"Let's be quick with this, I don't want to spend too much time here."

Everyone entered the elevator and Loki found himself directly to the left of Sif.

"I apologize for tricking you, Sif, I needed help."

She stared forward for a few moments before replying.

"If it was something less dire, I would be mad, but you could try telling me the truth next time."

"Yes but then you would think I was lying."

They both chuckled and Sif nodded.

As soon as they reached the lab, Tony and Bruce went directly to get what they needed. Loki leaned against the wall, warily eyeing the windows.

"You said that you have some of my blood. What does it look like, the poison I mean?"

Without turning from what he was doing, Tony answered.

"Aah…really dark liquid, it attacks the cells until they run out of energy and die."

Loki nodded but wore a slight frown.

"There were still cells alive? That blood has not received any of the inhibitor."

This time it was Bruce that answered.

"It was kept in a very low temperature environment and it was in stasis. We think that slowed the poison down."

There was a small silence, in which Tony and Bruce finished gathering what they needed.

"Okay, would it be fine if you can help us run a few tests. You said that it hurts when you use magic on yourself, could you do something to the blood while we observe?"

Loki shrugged as he held out his arm.

"I suppose, but spending too much more time here is dangerous, these tests won't take long, will they?"

Bruce shook his head and he took another, slightly larger, vial of Loki's blood. He finished and brought the vial to one of the functioning machines. Loki followed him, wavering slightly but shaking off Thor's worried hand.

"I'm fine, let's do this quickly. What do you wish me to do with the blood?"

"Whatever you think would be most effective. Hopefully this picture will appear without the main power."

Bruce replied as Tony fiddled with the control panel, soon bringing up an image, although less clear than before.

The blood seemed slightly darker, discounting the worsened picture, its cells were shrunken and dead ones were scattered about. Around each alive cell there appeared to be something like the poison, but of a slightly lighter color. An inky tendril of poison attacked one of the protected cells, yet could not crush the cell as it had before.

Loki arched an eyebrow at Bruce to proceed with the test, Bruce nodded.

"Go ahead."

Everyone watched the magnification as Loki focused on the blood, his hand hovering over it. A slight glow appeared around the cells but as it did, the lighter fluid encircling them darkened to the poison's hue and attacked the cells. Loki pulled his hand back and the glow dissipated as the protective fluid lightened again, ceasing its assault.

"What were you trying to do?"

Tony asked as he sat back down to the microscope. Loki chewed on his lower lip, thinking.

"I attempted to heal it, now I see why it hurt so. Perhaps when I make changes to my body, the change shifts the blood in a way that reacts negatively with the poison. I would not think shape shifting would have the same affect on my cells as healing."

The group was silent for a moment before Bruce spoke in a falsely encouraging tone.

"We have a sample of the inhibitor, maybe, if we can turn the power on quickly enough, we could extract it and start working on a cure."

"The inhibitor disappears after twenty four hours, you won't have much time."

Loki's discouraging tone earned him a glare from Tony.

"Stop trying to discourage us from focusing on this, we don't have a plan to kill the guy so this is more important."

There was a small tense moment before Loki replied stiffly.

"I wasn't, but you all should stay alert at night, if the opportunity arises I will bring the man here for you to defeat. It's time for me to take my leave, he must not become too suspicious."

Loki gave a quick smile before twisting and disappearing. Everyone stayed silent for a minute.

"Alright…well, Tony, you should probably try to fix the power so you can get working on the samples. I suppose we must take Loki's advice and be prepared for anything at any time."

Steve finally broke the silence and Tony nodded. He went to get his suit and Bruce stayed in the lab, while everyone else returned to where they normally meet.

Clint stared at the gaping hole in the glass windows, Natasha stood beside him.

"Loki said that he couldn't heal himself. What do you think did he did about us shooting him?

Natasha gave a small grimace and shook her head.

"Some other way, I suppose. At least we didn't hit anything vital."

The lights flickered back on and everyone looked around.

"Tony fixed the reactor, good. Now he needs to figure this poison out. Clint, we need to tell Fury about this new development, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably noticed what was happening earlier."

Clint nodded and the two of them dismissed themselves before entering the elevator.

"If it does come down to saving Loki or killing the guy, I don't think Tony or Thor will be able to do it."

* * *

**AN: I suffered a huge case of writer's block while writing this chapter, sorry it took so long but that's why. Apparently my 7 chapter curse is actually a thing because this almost always happens. What did you think of this chapter? There will be one or two more chapters after this, hopefully it won't take too long for me to write again.**


	8. Chapter 8

Evening hours passed by with excruciating slowness. Loki had grown to loath the night again. Although this time it was for an entirely more understood reason. Though the two incidents did share some common ailments, namely hallucinations if the inhibitor is administered later than the norm.

_Maybe you're just crazy._

_Silence._

Loki grimaced, batting the thought aside. Of course, it had only happened once. The night after Loki had visited the Avengers. Allan was most likely searching for any evidence of Loki's direct contact with them. He had found nothing, as Loki had planned, but his arrival had been late enough to cause Loki undue worry and reveal this new effect, which Loki had later attributed to the cells of his brain being attacked.

What he did remember of that night's conversation had not been reassuring.

_"I saw what you did to the tower, the lights and the skirmish you had with Stark."_

_"Yes, I do regret attempting to…do the latter."_

_"You do seem a bit roughed up."_

Loki had taken care to acknowledge the fact that if he had gone up against his friends he would have come out with more than a few cuts from the glass.

It had not been fun to inflict injuries upon himself, which included magicking Clint's arrow to propel itself towards his shoulder and calf. Yet the pain was necessary if he was to offset any suspicion.

_"Although I did enjoy seeing that tower dark, next time I suggest you don't take out the power of a place before you do something."_

_"Why?"_

It was normally simple to feign ignorance but being wracked by pains and nonexistent voices had made it considerably more difficult to maintain composure.

_"Why? I believe you know why. I am of a half mind to leave you be right now but half suspicions are not enough to ruin watching my work succeed."_

_"Ah…of course, you couldn't let all that work go to waste."_

That was a weakness, even in the state Loki had been in he had recognized it. And now, as Loki sprawled across a couch with the morning light shining through his magicked windows with a laptop stolen from Tony, he recognized another weakness, anther flaw.

_A name, a false death, and a possibly high paying job_

For some reason Loki had not thought of using the internet before, perhaps due to its unreliable nature, which often led to ridiculously amusing theories. But even if Allan was lying there could be something to be found.

_Death of rich male, Allan_

Were Loki's first search. The number of results was frustrating. He did not have the time or desire to shift though unimportant deaths of meaningless Allans.

_Such a common name, why are mortals so blandly repeatable in their naming._

Loki added "tragic" and "unexpected" to the search and reloaded the page. Although there were still a large amount of results, it did narrow down the search slightly.

_If I'm going to search through all of these I might as well get something to eat, something fresh._

He considered the idea. Honestly Loki didn't want to be stuck in here, silence was appreciated but he had grown accustomed to background noises.

_It's not uncommon for mortals to gather in cafes with their technology, I would just have to shift my appearance and-_

Loki's train of thought was cut short as he grimaced at his own idea. Pain in exchange for a pointless desire.

_When has that ever stopped me before? Might as well indulge myself, make the most of what you can._

After a few more moments of consideration, Loki caved. After all, Allan most likely knew where he was at most times and it's not as if Loki was going to speak with anyone. He would do as he pleased, no mortal could stop him from doing this.

**00000**

After taking the form of a mortal woman, admittedly still resembling himself in many features, and deftly pick pocketing an oblivious business man. Loki made his way towards the same café where this had all started.

He entered, announced by the ring of a bell. The café was far busier than previously, which was relieving for his desires to blend in. He was led to a small booth by one of the hostesses and removed the laptop from a satchel he carried.

As it turned on a waitress hurried over to his table.

"You having a good morning? I'll be serving you today, the name's Valarie, what can I get you to drink?"

Loki looked up and blinked in surprise. It was the same short haired waitress that had served them last time, although now her cropped hair was a startling shade of black.

"Oh-yes, I guess I'll have some mint tea. Didn't you used to have brown hair? Pardon me asking."

The waitress jotted down his order and laughed.

"Yeah, I got it done last week. But you look kinda familiar, I can't place why…"

Loki waved a hand dismissively, grinning.

"I actually get that a lot, not a big deal."

They exchanged grins before Loki returned to the laptop and she left.

He began his search again as the thrum of conversations faded into the background. Loki was careful to note any pictures attached to the articles, comparing them to his memory. Most he checked were useless, easily disregarded for their useless content. Soon the waitress, Valarie, returned with his drink, cheerfully setting it beside the laptop.

"Here ya go. So, do you know what you want to eat?"

"Yes, I guess I'll have a club sandwich."

Valarie jotted it down and glanced at the article Loki was currently on, she made a sympathetic noise.

"College stuff?"

"Oh, yes, it's for an essay I have to write."

"Sucks, although it does remind me of the pile of work I have to do when I get back to my dorm."

She sighed before smiling again and hurrying off with Loki's order.

Loki allowed himself a small smirk before returning to his search, discarding the current article. It was another few pages before he found something with any promise.

_Tragic Death of Hometown Success, Allan Longtrow._

What immediately caught Loki's eyes were the images. One was a close up of the man, whose plain features and wide set brown eyes were strikingly familiar to Loki, even when distinctly younger, correlating with the article's date. The next picture was of the man, a woman, and a child. Loki looked to the caption underneath.

_Allan Longtrow(right) with wife Naomi Longtrow(left) and daughter Louise Longtrow(center)_

Loki stared at the picture, at the man whom he so despised, here smiling and happy. After a few more seconds Loki began to read the passage. He soon gathered why this was labeled a tragedy.

_Only seven months after the tragic deaths of his wife and child, Allan Longtrow was killed while on what he described as "a break to cope with it all". He was on a small trip to one of the many Pacific Isles and was only found by an expedition sent out to search for him. By the time Longtrow was found, he was in an almost unrecognizable state of decomposition, only his clothes and DNA tests identified the body as his._

Loki paused, furrowing his brow. So the family was dead. Had Allan had them killed, did they get in the way? Loki's instincts told him no, what he had gathered about Allan's nonsensical desire to "cause chaos" and his words on the cruelty of fate, it seemed as if he had a grudge against the world.

Just then, Valarie returned, setting the plate down with a smile.

"Here you go. I think I've figured out why you look familiar. I bet I've seen you around NYU, that's where you go, yeah?"

"Wha-yes I do, that's probably it."

"Cool, so if I ever-"

She was cut off by a man, who bumped past her as he sat opposite Loki. There was a small moment where both Tony and Valarie stared in surprise as the man. Then Loki's eyes widened as something in the blue eyes of the man flickered, showing a half second of muddy brown. Loki swiftly closed the web page, thanking the gods for a game shortcut on the laptop, which he opened without looking away from Allan.

Then Allan spoke, his accent marginally different from the norm.

"What a coincidence to see you here."

He then turned towards Valarie and waved a hand.

"Could you leave us, we need to talk."

She stared, affronted, in surprise for a few seconds before glancing to Loki, who grimaced in apology. Then she hurried off, casting concerned looks over her shoulder.

Allan leaned over the table closer to Loki.

"Interesting to see you out and about."

All too aware of Allan's barely veiled glare, Loki muttered a reply.

"Need to work on that glamour, it flickered around your eye for a moment, it's always the eyes that give them away with that type of magic."

"I'll keep that in mind, as not all of us have the power to shape shift. But again, interesting to see you out and about."

While he spoke, Allan pushed the laptop screen towards him, a game of solitaire met his eyes. He pursed his lips and pushed the screen up, tearing a piece from Loki's sandwich with his other hand as he did. Loki continued to stare at him.

"Well, I have to scout things out."

"Oh, really, is that what you're doing?"

"Obviously."

Loki's hands twitched.

_I could just kill him right here. Just reach out and …_

His hands twitched again, but something kept them from acting. A weakness, his self preservation instinct, it stiffened his limbs.

_They may develop a cure, if he did this once he will most likely do it again. Not now._

Loki's smile never faltered as Allan spoke again.

"I see, well whatever it is, I hope it will impress."

"Of course, you will have to wait and see."

"Alright then, we'll talk again tonight. I was just…checking up."

With that Allan stood and exited the café.

Loki released his pent up breath and relaxed slightly. He stood and began to return the laptop to its carrier before remembering that he had to pay and finish his food. Soon Valarie returned with a worried look.

"Who was that?"

"Er, nobody, just my…ex-boyfriend."

Loki regretted his quick lie as soon as the horrified look appeared on Valarie's face.

"Really? That's a bit scary, is he pushing you around?"

"No, it's fine, I can handle it. I should be going, though."

After he paid for them meal, leaving what was left of the nicked money as a tip, Loki left the café. He ducked into an empty alleyway and appeared back within his apartment.

Once he returned to his normal form, Loki began to read the article again, searching for anything more that could give him the upper hand.

_You have weaknesses mortal, I will exploit them._

**00000**

Tony sat, half reading a Norse mythology book and continuously glancing at their ongoing test.

They had commenced this particular test, in which they would combine some of the extracted poison and some of Tony's drawn blood, about an hour ago. It was scheduled to take a while for any reaction, as it had with Loki's blood originally, but Tony's constant complaints on the lack of progress and hovering had quickly grown on Bruce's nerves. He had been ordered to either leave or distract himself with something while they waited. Tony had chosen the latter.

Every so often he would mark a certain story for later questioning on Thor or Loki's behalf. At the moment he finished another, marking it with a grimace.

"If even half of these are true it's no wonder Loki has a high pain tolerance."

Bruce looked up from his laptop and arched an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"I mean, this one has Loki getting his lips sewn shut by some dwarves because he lost a bet. Of course, he was supposed to have his head cut off, so I guess the lips thing is better. And then there was the story about him getting chained to a rock with a snake dripping poison into his eyes. Course he apparently had a wife helping him and I haven't heard anything about her from him before…So maybe that one's not true."

"Or maybe he does, or did, and something happened that he doesn't like to talk about."

Tony responded to Bruce's suggestion with another uncomfortable grimace.

"Great, add that to the list of questions he'll probably punch me for asking. But I don't know, in the myths Loki is Thor's uncle and not brother, also Thor and Sif are married, those obviously aren't true, so I don't know what to trust. Although I desperately hope that the one where Thor and Loki wear dresses to get Mjolnir back, is true, that mental image is too funny not to be real."

Bruce snorted and Tony grinned.

Just then their equipment beeped and they jumped up. The magnification showed that the poison had begun to attack the cells. But, unlike Loki's cells, the poison seemed unable to do anything to the cells. It merely slid past the cells and, as they watched, was attacked by white blood cells.

"So it doesn't work on humans…good, I guess."

Tony muttered darkly as Bruce typed commands into the panel.

"Yes, it doesn't seem able to attach to human cells. It's a step in understanding this poison, but Loki's cells are so different from ours in the first place, I'm not sure how much this helps. Also I just thought of something reasonably unpleasant."

"What?"

Bruce cleaned his glasses on the edge of his shirt before continuing.

"We saw that, when Loki used magic on his blood, the inhibitor turned to poison and were unable to capture the inhibitor before it went away. What if, instead of simply disappearing, the inhibitor turns to poison when it had protected the cells for it's amount of time. Essentially, every injection ends up adding more poison to Loki's blood."

"…Like an addiction, the more you use the more you need. Shit, you think so? That's bad, the poison is just growing in concentration…shit…shit."

Tony cursed furiously, Bruce gave a grim nod.

"It would make sense. Of course, if it is true the poison would eventually grow to a high enough concentration and overpower the cells. It's a death sentence without an actual cure, inhibitor or not."

A tense silence followed Bruce's words. In which, Tony grit his teeth, a muscle jumping in his jaw. Bruce watched him warily for the inevitable outburst. Another minute or two passed before it finally occurred.

"_Dammit, god dammit_! Why does everything have to go to shit?!"

Tony shouted before storming towards the elevator. Bruce called after him.

"Wait, Tony, where are you going?"

"To get a damn drink!"

* * *

**AN: I don't know why, I don't really have writers block but the ideas are just slow to come out on paper, it's weird. Sorry that's my bad excuse for my slower update times. Anyway, I have an amusing tibit to share. Originally I named Valarie: Tony, and only stopped while typing to laugh at myself because there's already a Tony. I don't know how I didn't think of that to begin with. Alright, so how do you like this chapter? One or two more are to come.**


	9. Chapter 9

Another few days passed, they had made little progress with the poison. Although they had learned that Thor's blood was not affected by the poison either, leading to the conclusion that it targeted magic or that Loki's internal structure, different from them all, was being targeted.

"Careful, Tony, the vial is cold enough that it could shatter if it hits something too hard."

"I know, this isn't my first time handling delicate objects, you need steady hands to do what I can do, I've got it."

Tony muttered with a smirk as he gently lifted the vial of blood from their latest tests.

They had placed the blood in extremely cold temperatures to see how much cold could halt the poison.

He moved the vial over to its holder, setting it down carefully. As he did, Bruce quickly entered a series of commands into a panel on the side. They watched as a machine closed around the vial, a moment later a projection appeared.

The blood had turned a sluggish black.

"That was the color of his blood when he was a…what was it called, oh, frost giant. When he was a frost giant and got stabbed."

"Interesting, so the blood can actually take different appearances, I wonder how it does that…Anyway, let's see if we can find the poison in all this darkness."

It took a few moments to distinguish the inky black poison. The cold appeared to have significantly decreased its ability to attack surrounding cells, as expected. The poison moved lethargically and when it did attack a cell, it seemed to struggle crushing it.

"Yeah, it's definitely not as effective, I suppose we could attribute that to the cold or-"

"Or because few known ailments can kill a fully grown Jotun, of course Loki doesn't exactly fall into that category."

Both Tony and Bruce jumped, from behind them Sif exited the elevator. She strode over to them, giving a nod of acknowledgment.

"What are you doing here…wait, what do you mean?"

Tony frowned in question.

"I got bored watching the others do nothing. And I mean exactly what I said. There are very few known diseases or viruses able to kill Jotun, they have a high tolerance to sickness. Although this is not one of those, Thor, Loki, I, we would have been able to recognize it if that was the case."

Sif spoke matter of factly. Bruce and Tony exchanged glances before Bruce spoke.

"But Loki isn't a full grown Jotun?"

"Indeed, he is a runt by their standards, I doubt this poison would stand any chance against a healthy Jotun."

Bruce nodded as Sif approached the projection. Her dark hair made Tony think of the myths he had read.

"So Loki didn't cut your hair off."

Sif looked to him, startled.

"What? How did you know about that, did he tell you?"

"Wait, _he did_?"

Beside them, Bruce sighed with exasperation but didn't interfere.

"Loki actually cut off your hair, then why isn't it gold?"

Sif smirked.

"I assume that you reference the stories written about us. Those are a slew of falsities mixed with some truths. Yes, Loki did cut off my hair, although it was when we were young, and it was not replaced by gold."

"Oh…so Loki didn't get his lips sewn shut."

"Well actually yes, but it did not have to do with that, it was for a completely different reason and much later. I cannot remember exactly what he did, but there was an extended period of time where Loki could not speak."

Tony grinned and was about to reply when Bruce spoke up.

"While that's an amusing mental image, I think you guys should see this."

Sif and Tony turned back to look at the magnified display.

The poison appeared to be mixing with the black cells on a large scale again. The dark blood appeared to be resisting far better than before, some attacking the poison. Although the cells were still failing, they took far more poison before being overwhelmed. And when regenerating, they did so far faster.

"This is what you were talking about, Sif. The body fights better, like this."

"Indeed, and this is only Loki's blood, which would most likely be considered weak by the Jotun."

There was a small pause then Bruce's eyes lit up.

"Blood transfusions!"

"I'm sorry?"

Sif frowned but Tony inhaled sharply.

"Do you think that would work? I mean, how could we get that kind of blood? Loki would have to-"

"Yes he would, but if Sif says Jotun blood is strong, his body would accept that blood. It's a possibility!"

Bruce spoke quickly, still giddy.

They continued to speak in a rapid fire conversation until Sif stamped her foot, creating a thud disproportionate to her size.

"Both of you, calm down and speak to me. Blood transfusions, what are they?"

Tony came to a stuttering halt before answering her.

"Essentially it's where we transfer healthy blood into a person who needs it, for whatever reason. 'Course with humans what can be transferred depends on blood type, I don't know how it works with you all."

"Ah, that's what you call them. We have that procedure, although it goes by a different name, but it's little used as we do not have much need for it. I suppose that idea has its merits but Loki would be the only one to have any chance retrieving that blood."

Sif frowned thoughtfully, but Bruce remained optimistic.

"But it could be done. A little bit of that blood to fight off the poison, it's the best option we have."

Yet Sif continued to frown, chewing her lip. Tony arched an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, no it could work. Only…I doubt Loki will easily agree to it. It is not as if Jotuns are looked highly upon, putting that blood into his body, more of it…there could be negative side effects and not just to his ego."

"Anything him worse than him dying of the poison?"

"…Doubtful."

Although she still appeared uncertain, Sif nodded.

"Exactly, it's the best thing we've got so far. We just need to tell Loki when he shows up again."

Tony glanced out into the lit city, the half moon casting its reflection onto the river, and nodded resolutely.

**00000**

_Why don't you give in? That's what you do, give in, because you're weak, pathetic._

Dark shapes danced at the edges of Loki's vision and voices wormed their way through his head. Chills raced up his body that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Why is it worse…why…it's not even…it's still early!"

_You enjoy it, you cannot lie to yourself, you enjoy the chaos._

A black silhouette moved from the edge of Loki's vision, drawing closer and hissing malicious thoughts within Loki's head. It let out a cruel laugh, one Loki recognized as his own.

"You are nothing more than a specter, a creation of my own doubt…of a temporary mental deficiency. Nothing more!"

White hot, needling, pain spread along his limbs. The sickly sweet taste on his tongue was overpowering, his stomach roiled with nausea.

"Why is it so…I cannot…hurry up mortal."

_The monster that you hide saves your life. Oh the irony of that, yet it does not save you well enough, perhaps because you are weak._

More whispers from the dark. Loki made a low noise in the back of his throat, scowling and attempting to block out the voices. He focused on the thin layer of frost that appeared where his hands had touched, hoping to distract himself.

What seemed like ages passed, then a real voice spoke above the false ones.

"I see tonight does not find you well."

Allan spoke with no concern, only expressing intrigue. Loki wondered how long the mortal had been there, he had lost confidence in what he saw some time ago. It took a moment for Loki to find a stable voice.

"Perhaps…but I desire the inhibitor, now."

"Oh, no questions?"

There was a moment of pause as Loki processed Allan's words, a steady buzz had began in his head.

"I would rather…there is nothing I wish to know at the moment…"

"I see, yes I will give you it in a moment. But what of your next move? You said that it would be interesting, yet nothing has happened."

Allan sounded almost disappointed, like a father chastising his child. It would have infuriated Loki if he hadn't been in his current state.

"Be patient…it will happen soon."

"Well of course, I can be patient, but it seems like you don't have very much time to do so. It looks to me like my darling is getting to you quite badly. If I were you, patience wouldn't be something to test. Now, change so that I may give you the inhibitor, I'm sure a few moments like that won't kill you."

His body screamed out in protest as Loki left his Jotun form, veins burning like the fires of Muspelheim. A long moment later, Loki felt the prick of a needle in his tensed arm and heard the small noise that indicated Allan's departure.

Loki could feel the cooling sensation in his blood spreading, but is was so slow, too slow. The rest of his body burned while the inhibitor moved at its sluggish pace.

_This has to end…I cannot…this has to end soon._

**00000**

"Do you really think that will work?"

Clint frowned incredulously.

Everyone stood around the display in the lab as Bruce, Tony, and Sif explained their idea.

"It could, if Sif is right about the strength of their blood, then it might work. I don't think it would be any different than transferring human blood between humans."

"What about the "side effects" you vaguely mentioned?"

Steve gestured to the projection and this time it was Sif who answered, glancing knowingly at Thor.

"We are not sure how full Jotun blood would react with Loki's. The side effects may not necessarily be dangerous, but they may lead to a complication Loki would not want."

"I'm pretty sure the main thing we would want is to not die."

Tony said firmly. But Thor seemed to have understood something in Sif's words that the rest of them did not. After a few more moments of Thor's continued silence, Tony scowled.

"Both of you, tell me what's wrong with this. Sif, you said it would work, why are you hesitating now?"

Sif looked vaguely uncomfortable as she thought of an answer.

"Well, I mean-"

"My brother can appear Asgardian, I suspect the weakness of his Jotun blood makes it very easy, unconsciously even. But if he is subject to strong Jotun blood…it could affect his ability to do so without thinking of it. Do not misunderstand, I would not care, he is my brother, his appearance does not matter to me, but it does matter to him."

Thor picked up as Sif trailed off, seeming both defensive and slightly disheartened. Tony was still stubbornly frowning.

"I have a feeling Frost Giants weren't shown in a very good light when you were growing up. I mean, Loki's a stubborn ass, but there's no way he would risk his life rather than take the chance that something could happen, unless there's some old prejudice drilled into him."

There was a moment where both Asgardians looked incredibly sheepish. Thor absentmindedly swung Mjolnir with one hand.

"Well…I suppose…yes, there was. I was wrong, of course, and it really created the problems that occurred during my three days of banishment."

"Right…so godly racism exists, _great_. But we will convince him, he has to listen to us."

It sounded like Tony was trying to convince himself more than everyone else. Natasha threw a sidelong glance at Steve, who gave her a tight frown, before speaking up.

"Of course he will, Loki's not an idiot. We just have to wait for him to show up, hopefully that won't be long. Your idea will work, it sounds solid enough, we just have to wait."

**00000**

The café was bustling, people dressed in layers sheltered from the cold outside. Loki, disguised again and also dressed in warm clothes, even though he did not need them, was seated at another booth. He had his laptop again, although this time he did little but search through current events.

Soon a waitress, not Valarie, appeared and took his order. Loki glanced around the café, waiting.

_Come on now, show up, I need you to show up mortal, I'm done playing this damnable game._

Once his food order was taken, Loki began to play a virtual chess match while sipping his drink. It was genuinely amusing how easily he won against the computer, even on it's hardest mode. A while passed, his food was delivered and half eaten, then someone sat opposite him. Loki suppressed a grim smile as he looked up.

"Hello Allan."

"Hello Loki, should I call you Loki in that form? Not a very feminine name."

"Doesn't matter."

They stared at each other for a few moments.

"So, are you going to make your next spectacle here?"

"Mmm…I suppose, but it could hurt people."

Allan frowned suspiciously.

"You say that like I would care."

"Perhaps you would have, in an earlier time. What do you think, Allan Longtrow?"

Loki watched Allan's expression as it went from suspicion to surprise. In an instant the air around them turned static.

"I always knew you were clever, too clever for your own good."

Allan made a small movement, as if taking something from the pocket of his coat.

"I'm flattered, but one simply needs to know where to look and have the patience to find it."

Both tensed and there was a moment of stillness.

Then Allan swung what was in his hand towards Loki's exposed arm. Loki snatched his hand away and in a fluid movement grabbed Allan's arm. They pitched sideways as Allan attempted to break Loki's grip with a spurt of fire.

People around them screamed.

Loki felt the skin on his palm burning but kept his grip firm on Allan and prepared to transport them both. Then there was a shimmer of gold and their feet left the ground.

* * *

**AN: What do you think of their plan, I took all of your reviews and ideas into mind when deciding how exactly to go about it. On that note: Thank you for the feedback, I got a lot on the last chapter and overall so thank you all, they are incredibly motivating. So what do you think of this chapter? I'm not sure how long it will take to write the next but I've had fun writing this, so hopefully not too long.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Turns out this chapter was going to be too big, so it isn't the last one. But the next one will be**

* * *

"I really need some sleep, I'm pretty sure I've been running on caffeine alone for the past few days."

Tony rubbed his eyes, groaning.

The entire team was together, not in the lab, for the first time in days. The only ones who didn't look tired, from the stress and near constant vigilance, were the two Asgardians, but Tony figured they could go for weeks without sleep and still be able to kick ass, they probably had. Even Steve had bags under his eyes.

"It's not like this is a new thing for you, Tony. If I remember correctly, you were working on something for three days straight and then someone attacked us. You were so out of it the only thing that kept you in the air was Jarvis."

"Well, star-spangled smart ass, what I was working on was important. When genius strikes you just go with it."

Steve smirked in response to Tony's crabby retort. Behind them, Clint hid a laugh with a swig of coffee.

It almost felt normal again, like they had just returned from a long fight and were tiredly victorious. Of course, there was still the underlying tension in the air that had been present sense this started.

"Hey Nat, how much coffee is left? I'm going to want some-"

A loud crash, the sound of struggling, and the appearance of two people, interrupted Tony and made everyone jump up in surprise.

The two people, one a man and the other a young woman, had appeared above a table, causing the crash as they fell onto it. The woman, whose dark hair and sharp features were strikingly familiar, had the man in a headlock.

Everyone stared in shock for a moment longer. Then the woman snarled something unintelligible and pitched the man downwards, slamming his head into the floor. He went limp and the woman threw him down with a vicious look.

"You all were some help."

The woman snapped at them, cradling her arms gently.

"Wait, Loki?"

"Who else would want to come here?"

Tony gaped, while Natasha bento down next to the man on the floor, feeling for a pulse.

"You didn't kill him, he's just unconscious. Is this the guy then, the one that did this?"

"Yes, and I didn't mean to kill him, he may have use to you yet, if you can contain him."

Loki gave the man a reviling glare before closing his eyes and slowly, painfully, returning to his normal self.

"Brother you look…we should do something about your arms."

Thor quickly masked his surprise but Loki arched an eyebrow.

"Do I look that bad? I haven't exactly had a good few days."

"Er, no you look just-"

"You look like a wasted drug addict who hasn't slept in days and is in dire need of a fix."

Clint muttered flatly, Loki half smirked.

"_Wonderful_, although none of you look that great either."

Loki surveyed the dark shadows beneath their eyes, something like hope leaked into his tone. There were a few moments of silence, then the team started talking all at once about their idea.

"We had this plan-"

"-but you need to be the one to get it-"

"-I'm not sure how you'll take this-"

Their words mixed and jumbled together. Loki blinked rapidly in surprise, taking a step back and wincing at his throbbing burns. He frowned at the only one who wasn't speaking, Sif, and she grimaced with exasperation.

"_Enough_!"

Her voice harshly cut through the others and silenced them, Loki suppressed a chuckle.

"I am starting to see that you all have a problem with talking over each other. We only need one person to explain, not six."

Everyone looked to Tony and Bruce, Loki followed their gaze expectantly. Bruce shrugged and motioned for Tony to speak.

"Oh, me, okay…if you didn't know, Loki, your blood fights the poison best while in Jotun form."

"Yes, I figured that out."

Loki nodded slowly as Tony took a relieved breath. Natasha quietly went to get something for Loki's arms. Tony resumed speaking with a nervous look.

"Good, good…well, Jotun blood is stronger against illnesses than Asgardian, or ours, that's what Sif and Thor said. So we think that if you go and get some full Jotun blood and-"

"No, you want me to-that could-_no_!"

"Yes, yes you are!"

"No, you have no idea-"

"What, that something could go wrong, what you'd think if something went wrong?"

Tony scowled, cutting Loki off harshly. Tension stilled the air as Loki glared at them all in disbelief. They remained silent until Natasha returned, who immediately assessed the tension and sighed. She ignored Loki's glares and held out a tube of some sort of gel.

"Those burns are pretty bad, I would say you should go to the hospital but we don't have the time for that. This is going to hurt, just warning you."

Her voice was neutral, but Loki grudgingly held out his arms. That act broke the silence they had been in and Tony started speaking again.

"We think the Jotun blood should be strong enough to fight of the poison and it should mix fine with your blood, but you are the only one who can get it."

"This is ridiculous, there must be some other way. You can't honestly expect me to-_augh_!"

Loki finished with a yelp, Natasha grimaced an apology.

"Sorry, I told you it would hurt."

"Quite…Anyway, no I do not think you understand."

"Then explain."

Tony tapped his foot impatiently. The rest of the team remained silent, watching Loki stoically.

"I cannot, you would not understand. You have obviously thought of the risks or you would not have reacted so quickly to my denial."

"Brother…I realize that you are firm on this decision, but it is your life."

Thor spoke up, stepping closer to Loki. Natasha had begun to wrap Loki's arms with sterile linens.

"I have had to rely on…it for the past few weeks, that's already far too long. If something goes wrong…I don't want to be like that all the time."

The crack of desperation in Loki's voice made Thor wince.

"I know, brother, I know. But if something does go wrong, if, then you have the magic to fix it as if nothing had ever happened. Please, Loki, if not for you, then for your friends, for us."

Thor spoke slowly and deliberately. There was a short silence following his words, in which Natasha finished wrapping Loki's arms with the cloth. Loki nodded in thanks and pulled his arms back in a protective manner. His gaze did not meet any of theirs, as the silence stretched on. When Loki finally spoke, it was in a small voice.

"What do you need me to do? We should hurry."

There was another small moment of silence as everyone processed Loki's quiet words. Then Bruce bolted towards the elevator.

"I'll go get the syringe we developed for it. Wait here, I'll be right back."

Loki still did not bring his eyes upwards, but silently nodded. Thor moved beside him, placing a hand on Loki's shoulder. Loki did not shake it off, but did not respond.

"Hey, Loki, do you want anything to eat before you go?"

"I just ate, but something small would not be unappreciated."

By the time Bruce returned, Loki had finished a slice of peace , changed the clothes he wore to his armor, and was standing above Allan, looking down at him with a dark look.

"Here, you just need to fill this, it should be enough."

Bruce passed the large syringe to Loki, who turned away from Allan and took it.

"Keep him restrained, if he wakes he won't be able to disappear if he is restrained, he doesn't have the strength of magic."

"Alright, we'll do that."

Tony confirmed, still suspiciously eyeing Loki's neutral expression and shifty eyes. He held out his hand to shake. Loki stared at it questioningly.

"You know, for good luck…or if something goes wrong."

Loki took it and was jerked down as Tony simultaneously hugged him and muttered in his ear.

"Don't do anything stupid Loki, it will be fine. And you can beat that asshole up when you get back."

Tony drew away and Loki cracked a small smile, still barely meeting Tony's eyes.

There was a shimmer of green-gold light and Loki was gone.

"I don't trust this, did you see his face? He's not convinced, what if he bails?"

"Tony, worrying about it isn't going to help. It's his decision now."

**00000**

Cold wind immediately buffeted Loki's face as he stepped out of the passage-between-realms. The menacing landscape loomed around him, wind howling through high spires and rock formations. Heavy snow found its way into his eyes and Loki rubbed it away.

_A blizzard, just wonderful._

It would be simple to get the blood, finding a Jotun and getting close enough to draw blood would be easy for him, with no ill effects from touching them. He could be out of here in just a few hours, the blizzard was no large concern, more of an annoyance than anything.

_This can be over, it can all be done…but something will go wrong, it always does._

Loki took the empty syringe Bruce had given him from his armor. Then took another out as well. Inside an inky black liquid glinted in the dim light. It was the one Allan had attempted to inject him with. Such a small looking thing, yet it had the power to destroy, simply administered through liquid or gas, it was suffering to those under its effects.

_This large a dose on me, when it's already in my system, death would most likely be almost instantaneous. Allan is in custody, they won't let him get away. I could just…it would be safer._

The black vial held Loki's gaze, faint light reflecting off of it.

_You're a coward, a pathetic coward. You would rather die than face consequences, it's always like that with you, isn't it? If there's a way out, you'll take it._

That thought bounced through Loki's mind. He did run, he always ran from his problems, even death was a way of running. He always did anything he could to escape consequences, responsibility, even the most extreme of escapes just to remain unburdened.

_Asgardians don't run, they stand and face their fate, they are not cowards._

"I am not…"

_You were raised like one, yet you are a coward._

The throbbing pain of his burns momentarily distracted Loki. He hissed but stopped his hands from going to his arms. The black vial soon returned to his attention.

"No, not like this, not now."

Loki raised his arm, as if to throw the syringe, but slowly stored it back within his armor.

"More use could come of you yet."

Strong gusts buffeted Loki as he made his way across the frozen wastes, eyeing the landscape warily.

_I spent much of my life running from my problems, I'm not ending it that way._

**00000**

"Are you sure I can't punch him?"

"No, Tony, you can't."

Tony huffed at Natasha's reprimand. The, still unconscious, Allan was restrained in a chair with cuffs that Tony had originally developed for Loki, what seemed like ages ago. Everyone sat in a tense position, waiting for Loki to return, all around the man.

"You know, I thought he would be more…I don't know, not this normal looking."

Clint rested his head on his hands with a small frown. Most everyone nodded in agreement.

"Yeah…appearances can be deceiving, I guess."

Beside Tony, Natasha smirked. Tony arched an eyebrow.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing, just…reminded me of something I said to you once, it was in Latin though."

"What…wait, that's what you said? I thought it was something about getting a ride. You- did he just move?"

Everyone tensed even more as Allan shifted in the chair. He moved his head slightly, then looked up. There were only a few seconds of confusion in his eyes before they cleared.

"Ah…I see…and these shackles are…magic repressing, clever."

He flexed his hands but seemed disturbingly casual. Tony felt his anger growing and stood up.

"You have the guts to act innocent? Do you know-"

"Tony, sit down."

This time it was Steve who cautioned him. Tony continued to glare as he sat back down, but noticed Thor scowling darkly as well, which satisfied him. Allan didn't seem phased by his outburst.

"Where's Loki?"

"That's not your business."

"On the contrary, I believe it is."

Allan's smile irked Tony more.

"Well, because we have you and you're not going anywhere, why did you do this?"

"I don't have to tell you that."

A low rumble of thunder outside made everyone look to Thor. The god stepped closer to Allan.

"You will tell us why you did this and why you did it to my brother."

Allan was smart enough not to deny the angry god.

"Because why shouldn't I? Life is cruel, bad things happen to good people. Most don't seem to realize this, they should. And as for your brother, he's powerful and very good at causing mayhem, even when his heart isn't into it. It was just lucky that my work happened to coincide with his use of magic."

"You didn't make it especially for him?"

"Oh, no, that would have taken many more years. I simply had to modify my work"

The straining of Allan's wrists against the cuffs was not lost on the Avengers.

"You're not getting out of those, they were made for someone much stronger than you."

"Right, and again, where is Loki? At this stage my darling starts to affect him in, what I can estimate to be…less than an hour."

"Did you say, "Your darling"? Why the hell, you damn-"

"I'm glad to see how effective my plan has been."

His words silenced them, Tony scowled deeply.

"We should ship you off to S.H.I.E.L.D. so we don't have to hear you ramble anymore."

"Any empty threat, you haven't already, so you won't. I assume you don't trust them, or I would have gotten word of your involvement ages ago."

Allan spoke casually, as if he hadn't said something alarming.

"You have people within S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Is that surprising? Of course I do, or I would not act so calm as of now, all good things come to an end, after all, I accept that."

"We will find them, you do realize that?"

Natasha challenged firmly, her stance was unwavering and projected utter confidence.

"You might, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is already complex enough. Having to go through it and not knowing exactly who is trustworthy…it could take ages and that's not even counting those outside of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The static silence following Allan's words appeared to amuse him. Air seemed caught in everyone's throat. Steve was the first to speak after that.

"How big is your network?"

"Do you honestly expect me to answer that?"

"We can make you."

Tony's cold, hash tone caught everyone by surprise but Allan merely chuckled.

"I tell you what cannot hurt the network, none of this information will hold much relevance after tonight. Though I may have created it, the operation does not need me, nor I it. To start something that will leave a lasting mark on the world. That's all that I needed to do. I have no further need for this world, now I can join Naomi and Louise."

AS he spoke, Allan pushed his tongue against one of his teeth and it detached. Steve's eyes widened and he leapt forward but was unable to grab Allan before he bit down, shattering the fake tooth.

Dark liquid was loosed from the tooth, almost immediately turning to a foamy material. In a matter of seconds, Allan seized and was dead.

"I…I should have stopped him…I knew what he was going to do…I've seen someone do it before, I should have-"

"No Steve, I should have recognized the pattern as well. But there's nothing we can do now."

Natasha stared at Allan, a slight scowl mixing with her masked surprise.

"What the hell do we do now?"

* * *

**AN: So this chapter wasn't the last one. I was writing and realized that it would have been about the length of two, so you get one more. I'm a few pages into writing it and hopefully won't take too long. What do you think about this chapter, things may not be exactly what they seem sometimes? I am so pleased by the feedback I've got on this story and will continue it with another, but will need time to figure out what exactly I want to do. Hopefully the last chapter will be out next week or sooner.**


	11. Chapter 11

Everyone remained in shocked silence for a few more moments, then a small pop, followed by the sound of heavy breathing, made them spin around.

Loki still had flecks of snow in his hair and on his armor, a cut ran along his jaw line, slowly dripping blood, but he appeared to be mostly calm.

"I…am back."

A syringe of grayish blood glinted in the light as he held it towards them. Then Loki noticed their still surprised expressions and Allan's body behind them. His expression turned dark.

"What happened?"

"He killed himself. What happened to you?"

Tony eyed the bleeding cut on Loki's jaw.

"The blood donor did not appreciate my presence."

Loki handed the syringe to Bruce as he moved to get a better look at Allan.

"It looks like some concentrated form of the poison."

"And on that note, are you ready, Loki? We can explain what happened afterwards, it would be better to do this as soon as possible."

Bruce looked up from the machinery beside him, which waited for Bruce's input. Loki nodded, a look of firm determination flashed on his face. He sat in a chair beside the machinery and said nothing.

"We're going to inject this into the vein in the crook of your arm."

Loki nodded again and removed the main part of his chest armor with a wave, leaving his less restricting undershirt, which he rolled up. The previously white linen covering his burns had been stained with blood, but came up to just below his elbow so it did not have to be removed.

Bruce brought the syringe closer to Loki's outstretched arm, a visible flinch was barely contained as the needle pierced his skin. The dark blood drained from the syringe as Bruce pushed down on the plunger.

"There we go. We'll let it spread for a few minutes then I'll take another sample to see what it's doing. How does it feel, Loki?"

Everyone watched as Loki's expression changed from closed to vaguely uncomfortable.

"It feels cold, very cold…_Ah_, no, it…no _no_ ah!"

From the point of injection, his skin began to turn it's blue hue. Loki grabbed at his arm, beginning to panic, his face drained of color. Thor placed a steady hand on his shoulder.

"Brother, calm yourself, it will be fine."

"_Calm myself?_ It's spreading and it feels as if my arm is going to tear itself apart. Calming myself seems quite _simple_!"

Loki snapped, his voice higher than usual. The blue hue slowly crept its way along Loki's arm and, as they watched, created a pattern of ridges. Dark blood welled from where Loki's fingernails dug into his arm.

"Loki, don't, I'm going to take some of you blood now, I just want to see what's happening."

Bruce fumbled for another syringe, while everyone else seemed frozen in surprise. Thor helped pry Loki'd hand away , as Loki appeared to be unable to, and Bruce quickly drew some of the dark blood. He placed it in the machinery and waited for the magnification to focus.

"Oh!"

"What is it, why is it hurting?"

"Look."

The magnified blood was dark but they could still make out what was occurring. The inky black poison was far more concentrated than the last sample they had taken but the Jotun blood seemed to be fighting against it.

"I think the pain is coming from the fact that your cells are attacking the poison. They're definitely overpowering it, but that's not stopping the poison from damaging them."

"Why didn't you tell me it was going to hurt? I was not prepare for-_augh_!"

Loki lurched forward, clutching at his shoulder. This time both Thor and Tony reached forward but Loki drew back and glared at them, still curling onto himself.

"If anyone of you touches me, I will rip your _arms out of their sockets_."

They stepped back and Tony looked to Bruce, who frowned with concern.

"Is that going to stop?"

"It should…think of it as the way your body fights sickness, you get a fever and feel miserable because it's fighting back. I think this is the same thing, just…more intense."

Tony grimaced as he looked back to Loki, who was curled almost into a ball, hair obscuring his face. Apparently Loki had heard them and raised his head a bit so that he could speak more clearly.

"What about when it gets to my brain, or heart?"

"It shouldn't do any permanent damage, just hurt."

"_Wondrous_."

That was the last fully coherent thing Loki said for some time. He remained hunched over but at times visible shaking wracked his body. A steady stream of muttered curses, in more languages than Tony could understand or count, filled the air.

About thirty minutes into this process, everyone had adopted a similar expression of sympathy. What they could see of Loki's skin was now an icy blue, cold could be felt radiating off of him. Tony leaned over to Bruce, not taking his eyes off Loki's tensed figure.

"How much longer should this take?"

"I'm not sure, the blood should be all around his body now, but it depends on how long it takes to fight off the poison."

It was another ten or twenty minutes before they finally saw Loki's body relax. A muffled groan came from him and he looked up slightly. His eyes, a burning scarlet color, were dull.

"I think…it's gone."

His voice was a hoarse whisper that bespoke misery he was too drained to hide. Thor again moved to touch him, this time Loki allowed it. With Thor's hand on his shoulder, Loki looked to Bruce.

"You should have warned me that it might hurt, I can deal with any amount of pain if I am prepared for it…I was not expecting…that."

There was a note of resentment in Loki's voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect it to be so extreme."

Bruce held his hands in a gesture of apology and Loki gave a small nod before looking down at his hands. He flexed them slowly, observing their ridges. After a moment he closed his eyes and placed one hand on the other.

Ever so slowly, the blue flesh was replaced by pink. Loki breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at them when the change was finished, his eyes returned to their blue-green norm.

"It's done with now, tell me what happened to him."

Loki nodded towards the dead Allan. After they explained everything he had said, there was a small pause, followed by a frown from Loki.

"That doesn't…"

Loki attempted to stand but faltered and nearly fell to his knees, Thor barely caught him.

"It seems…I have not recovered the strength I thought I had."

"Brother, you should sit-"

"No Thor, I need to see something."

Thor did let go, but hovered protectively next to Loki as he walked, which earned him a scalding look.. Loki kneeled down beside the dead man again.

Everyone was silent for a few moments, then Loki cursed in a low voice and pulled something from behind Allan's ear, holding it up for everyone to see.

"Is that an earpiece?"

"And, I think, a communication device…no…_no_!"

Loki made a swift movement, as if tearing away a sheet, and there was a dark shimmer around Allan's body. The light raced it's way from the point of tearing across his skin. When it was done, there was another man sitting dead in the chair, Loki let out a manic laugh.

"_Of course_, of course you wouldn't. Not like that, _no_…you have to much to do for _this_. You tricked me, I'm impressed, mortal, really!"

"What is this, who is that?"

Most of the team stared in shock but Thor and Sif's expressions had darkened. Loki still held the device and wore a manic expression.

"He mentioned finding other people able to use magic, I thought he had killed them though. But no, here we are with one. I should have known, he entered the restaurant undisguised, I should have known something was off!"

"Loki, calm down. Speak slowly, explain."

Tony stepped forward, moving his hands in a calming motion. Loki put his hands to his face for a few moments, taking deep breaths, before looking up. He seemed to have lost some of the manic energy from a moment ago, but still had an unnatural light in his eyes.

"We've been tricked. That's not Allan, I net he planned this, we was smart enough not to trust me. I underestimated him, I always seem to underestimate the intelligence of mortals. Those words he said to you were most likely from him, but this body is not his. Allan heard everything though, he still is."

Loki looked to the device, then effortlessly crushed it with his hand. Tiny pieces fell to the floor as Loki tipped his hand over.

"He knows that I am healed but, as this human said, has most likely hidden away any evidence of his existence."

"So this guy here, he can use magic? But shouldn't the illusion have worn off after he died?"

Steve motioned towards the dead man but Loki shook his head.

"Not if another applied it to him and the one to do it would not be Allan, he does not posses the ability to do such. It seems as if Allan has found at least two more magic users to keep, if not more."

The manic light in Loki's eyes was still present, echoing in his jerky movements as he stood. Thor again reached out to steady him, but Loki knocked his hand aside.

"I do not need help now, brother. I should have known it was to good to be true, a man that takes so much joy in causing chaos would not go out with a whimper."

"We need to alert Fury, he needs to know."

"Indeed."

**00000**

"So you don't know how much of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised."

"No, although we suspect a high ranking group at the least."

Director Fury stared down at the dead man.

They had successfully been able to contact him without raising suspicions, or so the hoped. He stood with a resigned scowl, looking between the body and the syringe of poison, which Loki had given to the group during the wait.

"These people could have access to anything we have, confiscated tech, confidential files, dangerous weapons."

"Wait, do you still have the scepter?"

Loki leaned forward and was unphased by the glare he received from Fury.

"You're still not in the green, when we sort this out you'll pay for the problems you caused."

"So you do have the scepter, should probably move that to safety…perhaps someone who knows how it works and how to keep it s-"

"You aren't getting that damn scepter back."

Fury cut Loki off, who simply shrugged.

"Alright, just a suggestion."

"Anyway."

Steve directed the conversation back on course.

"It could take months to fish these agents out, we should start immediately."

"Well, we need to figure out who we can trust first."

Tony pointed out, beginning to count them out on his fingers.

"Not many that I know of. Hill, obviously you two, Coul-"

He winced and came to a halt, everyone else grimaced slightly. Only Loki and Sif frowned, Loki noted the glances sent his way.

"I can assume that last person is dead. Am I allowed to assume that I killed them at some point?"

The looks Loki received answered his question and he went silent with a slight frown. Fury carried on as if nothing had happened.

"Yes, Agent Hill is definitely trustworthy, I'll decide who else. What I need you all to do is stay on your toes. This is going to be an interesting few months, to say the least…I need to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D. now."

**00000**

The darkness that met Loki's eyes when he looked out the massive windows caused him to tense and jump up. Thor looked to him in concern.

"Oh…it was just a reflex, everything is fine."

Loki muttered, eyes going back to his book to cover his embarrassment.

After Fury had left, the team had talked and planned for a few hours. Eventually they had allowed for a little bit of celebration and rest. Although much of the team had already returned to their rooms, exhausted by the events of the past weeks, Thor, Natasha, and Loki were still sprawled out on the couches.

"Actually, I'm going to bed. Goodnight, both of you."

The concerned look Loki received from Thor, as he stood, irked him, but did not deter him as he walked towards the elevator.

On the way, Loki stopped the room Sif currently inhabited. He knocked on the door, waiting for her to answer. The door slid open, Sif arched a surprised eyebrow.

"Hello Loki, for what reasons do you desire my presence at this time of night?"

Loki glanced down at the robe and nightgown she wore, he assumed Natasha had lent them to her, before responding.

"I apologize for disturbing your sleep, but I believe that I owe it to you to return you to Asgard, seeing as I stole you away in the first place. Perhaps tomorrow-"

"Return me? Why would you do that so prematurely, Midgard obviously has more troubles than Asgard as of now. You roped me into this, I feel obligated to help."

Sif let out a soft laugh at his suggestion, as if it was outlandish. Her amusement took Loki by surprise but, after a moment, he dipped his head.

"If it is your desire, then I thank you for the help you have given and yet to give, Lady Sif."

"It is my pleasure, either way, eventually the Bifrost will be repaired, if I should choose to return without helping you, it shall be that way."

"Thank you, again, goodnight Sif."

"Goodnight Loki."

The door slid shut as she turned away. Loki thought on her words for a moment, genuinely grateful for her denial of his offer, before leaving and continuing to his floor.

His door opened and Loki allowed himself a small smile of relief. His eyes immediately went to the tapestry, where the woven Jormungandr coiled around himself. Loki bowed his head, acknowledging him.

"Thank you for your help."

A soft hiss from Jormungandr sounded in Loki's mind. The tapestry began to move as Loki sat upon his bed, waiting. Soon the other consciences had gathered and greeted him.

"So, you have survived, Father, I am glad to see that."

Hel spoke within his mind. Loki let out a small chuckle.

"Indeed, I will not be joining you today, mine daughter."

"Yet things still trouble you, the mortal yet lives."

Loki stood and began to pace, in much the same way that he had when first telling them of his problem.

"He does, and that creates a slew of problems. The mortal is dangerous, not just to me, but to this realm. He has more foresight than I had first perceived."

Fenrir sent him a mental image and Loki stopped pacing, turning to smile fondly at the tapestry.

"Yes, that would be a fine idea for when I do catch him. But I am wary of the following months, we do not know what his next move shall be. I expect it will be something far grander than what he did to me, his success here, and I do count what happened as a success for him, gave him the confidence to do more. It is worrying."

"Indeed, father, you should not allow your guard to falter, the mortal seems adept at what he does."

Loki nodded seriously, looking down at his now healed arms, which he did as soon as possible after things had settled down, at the crook of his arm where the inhibitor had regularly been injected. Despite the lurking uncertainty and tension of Allan and his network, felt lighter than he had in weeks. He was no longer separate, no longer feared the crippling pain that night brought.

Whatever came, he would expect it, he would be prepared.

* * *

**AN: So it is done. I wasn't actually going to let Allan get off that easily, no he's got more to do. This is the longest of my stories by far, but it was a lot of fun to write. What did you think of it all? I will be continuing the story, and have a plan for what I'm doing next, actually just started writing the first chapter. Anyway, thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Update: I have uploaded the first chapter of the follow up fic. Name: Better The Devil You Know**


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